US Airways: Demand stabilising

Cuomo will subpoena to get AIG bonus details

American International Group will be subpoenaed for the names of the employees who were paid retention bonuses, New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo said today.

Cuomo had demanded that AIG supply the information by 4 p.m. EDT, a deadline the company didn’t meet.

In a conference call with reporters, Cuomo addressed AIG’s stance that the company has employment contracts under which it was liable to make the retention bonus payments -- despite the government’s subsequent bailout of the firm, which has made Uncle Sam the controlling shareholder.

From Bloomberg News:

"If the taxpayer didn’t bail out AIG, those contracts wouldn’t be worth the paper they’re printed on," Cuomo said. "Just because there’s a contract doesn’t mean there’s no way around the contract."

"The whole concept of a performance bonus to me is oxymoronic when it comes to AIG," he said. "These are people especially in the financial products’ division that virtually" bankrupted the company, "that’s why the taxpayer had to come in."

President Obama today vowed the goverment would find a way to get the money back.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on AIG executives to "voluntarily forgo their excessive retention payments."

No word yet whether any AIG employees are offering to be first in the give-back line.

-- Tom Petruno

Former AIG CEO Greenberg Defends Reputation

ABC News’ Alice Gomstyn reports: Former AIG chief executive Hank Greenberg is defending himself against criticism that his creation of AIG’s Financial Products unit was what ultimately led to the company’s spectacular decline.

“I’ve been out of the company for four years,” he said in an interview with ABCNews.com. “How could I be responsible for the problems they are suffering?”

A source close to AIG told ABC News that Greenberg was to blame for creating a unit that "put the whole company and the whole economy at risk.”

But Greenberg, who also criticized AIG for its retention bonuses today, said that under his tenure, the unit earned $5 billion by writing credit default swaps -- financial instruments that essentially act as insurance policies on other investments -- that passed the standards set by “the best risk management (departments) in the damn industry.”

Greenberg said after he left the company in 2005, AIGFP wrote double the number of credit default swaps but those swaps, he said, were of a lower quality than before.

“The losses didn’t come from what we did -- the losses came from what they did afterwards,” he said.

Greenberg also dismissed criticism that he created a culture of extreme risk-taking at AIG that later led to its calamitous investments.

“We had a culture of being innovative but prudent,” he said. “You rewarded creativity, not stupidity.”

--With reports from ABC News’ Matt Jaffe.

US Airways: Demand stabilising

MINNEOLISEXECUTIVES from US Airways Group Inc said on Monday that demand and airfares seem to be stabilising after sharp drops in January and early February.

US Airways President Scott Kirby told investors on a conference call that it's still difficult to tell where bookings are headed.
Stocks end lower after gain in financial stock fizzles
NEW YORK — Wall Street is ending lower as a gain in financial stocks fizzles and investors lock in profits. A retreat in stocks late in the session Monday comes after four straight sessions of gains last week. Stocks jumped more than 10 percent in the prior four sessions on easing worries about banks.

Hey parties, don't leave those kids alone!
While issues like physical security and economic well being are taken up in big way during elections, the issues of a young mind growing up in an increasingly demanding and challenging world, have often been left out.