The market was up 400 points today and with that came word of a brewing soap opera in the financial world. Last week Jim Cramer, the combustible, saliva spewing host of CNBC's Mad Money insulted AIG employees and suggested that the general public should harrass them at grocery stores and other public places because of the collapse of the company.
Now, I can see insulting the executives, but slamming an entire company with tens of thousands of employees for the mistakes of a few highly compensated executives few seems pretty immature. Mosst of AIG's businesses were profitable and well run and the company was brought down by one small group. AIG's new CEO shot right back and below is the letter he sent to Cramer demanding an apology. The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal got a copy of the letter, undoubtedly leaked by someone at AIG.
Edward M. Liddy
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
AIG
October 20, 2008
Mr. Jim Cramer
Mad Money
CNBC
[Address redacted]
Dear Mr. Cramer,
I was deeply disappointed last Thursday when you urged your viewers to harass AIG employees, saying:
“We should hound them in the supermarket, we should hound them in the ball park, we should hound them everywhere they are. We should make fun of them and we should point fingers at them and we should tell them that you have no shame.”
Those comments are outrageous. I demand they be retracted and that you apologize to AIG’s employees. It is one thing to criticize the executive leadership of AIG - that’s fair commentary. But it is way out of bounds to incite people to confront and harass other AIG employees - hard-working, dedicated people who are running good businesses and are committed to our success. The employees of AIG did not cause this mess, but they are paying for it - in diminished 401K savings and in some job losses as we sell companies to repay the Federal loan. The irony is that AIG employees did not cause the problem, but they will solve it. For that they deserve our praise and our gratitude.
I await your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Edward M. Liddy
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