I read your op-ed posted in the New York Times this morning. It has really created quite the stir. I must admit that at first I really saw through the media/ congressional spin and felt your pain, understood your disillusionment and agreed with your conclusions.
You see I too work in the investment banking world and have suffered accordingly. I worked for Lehman Brothers and felt betrayed, lied to and disrespected. When I read your editorial, I thought I saw someone who was actually speaking up for the people like me that were caught in the gears of this grand ponzi-esque scheme; people who work in other capacities supporting the business' you ran who don't make nearly a fraction of your salary, who had just as much to lose, just as many obligations; children, mortgages and 401k's as you. However, upon some deeper reflection, I have decided that you are very, very wrong.
If I could speak to you in person, my first comment to you would be, "Get off the cross, we need the wood".
What you have magnificently succeeded in doing is firmly advocating the age-old "when everybody's guilty, no one is guilty" mantra of the past administration and any other large beaurocracy that seeks to defend it's failures/actions and lick it's wounds and howl like a trapped animal in their own personal midnight for all the world to hear and take pity.
By no means do I have the audacity to question your character, but my first question is, "If you are so honorable, why did you post this letter to the New York Times?"
You worked as an executive vice president at A.I.G. for financial products. You rose through the ranks impressively on your own steam and merit, even attending by scholarship M.I.T.; So obviously you know your stuff. Therefore it is with great hesitation that I hear you exclaim from on high that you were not responsible for what happened at A.I.G. This is highly dubious. What you did was perform you role within the framework (or should I say lack thereof) of those unregulated, unscrupulous and untenable products such as CDO's and CDS's. Bundled mortgages were leveraged 35 to 1.
With all of your great talent (acquired on your own steam) how did you not see the writing on the wall? Did you somehow miss it? Did you simply choose to ignore it? Did you simply say, "Well, I didn't make the rules, I'm just playing by the one or two regulatory rules leftover from the rampant deregulation of the past 25 years."?
It is your perogotive to leave your position and your decision to return all (or whatever is left after the 90% tax) of your retention bonus. But know this; for all of your self-pity, you clearly can AFFORD to leave your job and give back your bonus. I am one of a handful of people fortunate enough to still have a job. Nearly everyone I worked with and for have been released. Because of the poor business decisions made from on high. You and I both know when you travel in the highest levels of organizations such as ours, it's you and your ilk that get all the credit, all of the money and all of the glory. You are not the only person with a family who worked 12 hour days away from your family. And the thousands of others like me who don't work in revenue generating groups who are in the same boat that you and your friday drinking buddies so arrogantly sank. We ALL worked very hard EVERY DAY and took pride in our efforts for far less pay to then have them all flushed away with no more than a "Sorry".
You should be thankful that you still had a job. You should be thankful that you can afford to so publicly and scornfully leave your job. You should be thankful that you can afford to return 3/4 of a million dollars and then blithely state that you lost "a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers." Clearly "significant" is nebulous in it's scope of actual savings if you can afford to return over $700,000.
I have no sympathy for you or even much for myself. I tend to think of the families being evicted from their homes. I have sympathy for the families that (not to assume too much here about you) live in dual income capacities with children as I do; As many of my friends and co-workers do.
I do not condone AG Cuomo's threat to name names; that is not fair, and perhaps it was this threat that incited you to post your resignation to the Times. But for God's sake, take a step back, you pompus windbag, and see your world and how starkly different it is from the many people you got on the elevator with who facilitated your "I went to MIT on my own steam" ego.
Millions of people have it much worse than you. I would have had more respect for you and your decision if you did not do it so publicly and with such self-pitying sanctimony.
Now go get ready for your head-hunter arranged interviews where you will have to painfully decide between the $2 million job at the small firm or the $1.5 million job at the large firm.