General Discussion - Conan Gets $40 million GE Bailout money? - Canada

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RE: Conan Gets $40 million GE Bailout money?

Postby Millie P » Wed Jan 20, 2010 07:38:40 AM

GE bailout had nothing to do with NBC. GE is a massive company with most of the divisions unrelated. The bail out was to save the failure of GE's financial arm and had it not been bailed out NBC would have just continued to operate exactly the same.

With respect to the banks while I agree in theory -- I'm a libertarian -- this was a very unique situation. Almost a thousand banks have been allowed to fail but allowing the mega banks to fail would have devastated not only the people at fault but everyone. Look at the fallout from allowing Lehman to fail. That was a test balloon to see if it was a possibility and it clearly wasn't. We haven't even felt the true impact if Lehman yet. Wait until the trustee starts to liquidate Lehman's REIT and everyone's commercial property suddenly loses 20-30% of it's value.

Now if we want to do something so that this doesn't happen again then I can see that being an option. I don't like it -- again because it involves government intervention in free enterprise -- but the alternative is to allow financial institutions to get to the point where they are so rooted in everything that they can't be allowed to fail. I think regulation is the least bad option to prevent something like this going forward even though it is distasteful.
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RE: Conan Gets $40 million GE Bailout money?

Postby montyloree » Wed Jan 20, 2010 07:24:36 AM

Millie....
this is free enterprise... the Americans and Canadians pride themselves on free enterprise.... bailing out companies is socialistic IMO...
I'm in business, and have never received a bailout, even though my business has fluctuations like every other.

It scares me that businesses are too big to fail... if an eco system can't naturally sustain one of its entities, it will damage other parts of the ecosystem (eco system = economic system & ecological system)

Agreed... Conan should get his $40 million because it was part of the contract... the question is....would GE have initiated that contract without the bailout money?
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RE: Conan Gets $40 million GE Bailout money?

Postby Millie P » Wed Jan 20, 2010 07:16:26 AM

If GE isn't too big to fail then I don't know what is. They were the largest company in the US at one point and while I don't know their rank at the moment they are certainly in the top ten and most likely the top five.

Giving Conan $40M sounds like a lot but he is under contract and would likely get a lot more if this went to court. $40M doesn't sound high especially since he likely had at least 4 years left on his contract and his yearly salary is $8M. They are basically buying him out for what they owe him.

The banks it is a harder question. I don't believe in bailing them out but if you didn't the consequences were going to be very bad and it would have impacted everyone. Also the problem started with Clinton's policy changes and while the banks could have stopped it the actual problem was caused by individual citizen's being irresponsible. The banks allowed it to happen because of greed but the actual cause was irresponsible individuals. I'm not sure if the government had a choice but to come in and bail them out.

The bad bailouts were the auto bailouts. A complete waste of money done completely for political reasons.
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RE: Conan Gets $40 million GE Bailout money?

Postby montyloree » Wed Jan 20, 2010 07:09:13 AM

agreed... to the bailouts...
If I as a small business am allowed to fail... then so should the big businesses. It would be painful however, that's democracy and free enterprise...

What would happen to Conans $40 million parachute if General Electric didn't receive their bailout money? It seems like it's business as usual at the expense of tax payers.
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RE: Conan Gets $40 million GE Bailout money?

Postby average_joe » Wed Jan 20, 2010 06:50:17 AM

I don't think any of the banks should have received bailouts and let them all fail. I believe it’s unfair to the banks that kept their house in order. The message Obama sent to the banks its okay to fail because we will be there to help you. I wonder how the people feel that voted for Obama and bought into all his pipedreams. The democrats lost a seat last night and America can forget about healthcare now. If I were Obama I would start the countdown to his first and only term.

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Conan Gets $40 million GE Bailout money?

Postby montyloree » Wed Jan 20, 2010 06:08:11 AM

This makes my blood boil on several different levels.
General Electric gets U.S. tax pays bail out money... Next they're giving Conan $40 million as a golden parachute. Why does this seem wrong?

I think the government should have NOT given General Electric bailout money in the first place. They're not too big to fail... and now they seem to be profitable enough where they can hand out a really nice bonus... This package is much larger than the ones given out by AIG etc...

This makes me furious!!

Conan O’Brien is expected to receive some $40 million for leaving NBC, the media unit of General Electric (GE), itself among the largest recipients of taxpayer help. While it would be a stretch to compare the late-night talk show host to a Goldman Sachs (GS) or Citigroup (C) banker, he’s arguably only a few steps removed.

Though the conglomerate wasn’t a recipient of direct equity aid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, GE availed itself of perhaps an equally important bailout facility, the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program overseen by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/183321-conan-obrien-a-40-million-bailout-recipient?source=email

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