By Ben Cohen

In response to the AIG worker who resigned via at editorial in the NYT, Matt Taibbi had a few things to say. And no, they weren't kind:

This would be a believable claim for an employee of some other wing of

AIG, a company with well over 100,000 employees. But DeSantis works for

tiny, 377-person AIGFP, a unit that had only two offices, one in London

and one in Greenwich, Connecticut. And we're talking about financial

professionals, the most shameless group of tirelessly envious gossips

ever to walk the face of the earth. The likelihood that Joe Cassano

would pull in $280 million for himself, and his equally greedy,

hopelessly jealous employees wouldn't know not only exactly how he made

that money but every last ugly detail about his life -- from what skank

he's sleeping with to what side of his trousers he hangs on -- is

almost zero. I know plenty of people who work in this world and I've

met very few who didn't hate with every cell in their bodies anyone in

their own companies who made more money than they did or got bigger

bonuses at Christmastime. Gossiping about each others' bonuses, and

bitching about each others' compensation, is the national pastime for

these people.

So forgive me if I don't buy this story that poor
Jake and his buddies didn't know about Cassano's CDS business. Also,
there's this: let's just say, Jake, that you're telling the truth, that
you don't know anything about this toxic portfolio. If that's the case,
then why the fuck does anyone need to retain you at an exorbitant
salary to help unwind that very portfolio? If these transactions aren't
and never were your expertise, then where the hell is your value here?
When I spoke to Christine Pretto, the AIG spokeswoman, and asked about
those bonuses, she said that AIG needed to retain people like you in
order to take advantage of your "knowledge of these transactions." So
if you don't have knowledge of these transactions, what are you being
paid for? Your winning attitude?