The Huffington Post is reporting that American Express is sending letters to a select group of customers offering them a THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR prepaid credit card if they cancel their accounts!  Seriously!  Apparently, this is to give these customers a chance to "simplify" their finances.  However, in reality, Amex just isn't doing so well due to the credit crisis. 

Rumor has it that these letters are going out to customers with high outstanding balances, in an attempt to get the balances paid down instead of defaulted on.  Obviously, you can't get the gift card if you don't pay your account down to zero.  However, your card does still get canceled either way.

I read of someone who pays their card off every month actually calling and requesting a letter.  Of course, they were refused.  You can get further details here and here, as well as directly from the American Express website.

Cliff Mason wrote a wonderful article on his blog at CNBC.com about how the public doesn't understand the meaning of the word "bonus" as it applies to Wall Street.  With all this talk of late about ballooning lump sum payments to CEOs of failing companies, the general public is on a witch hunt for executives who are taking more money out of their government-funded companies than absolutely necessary.

However, what the public fails to understand is that many people on Wall Street rely on bonuses as a significant portion of their compensation, and are paid a significantly smaller salary because of it.  They are not paid in the paycheck-every-two-weeks-and-that's-it structure like most Americans.  When Obama recently stated that 'now is not the time for bonuses', it was just like saying 'now is not the time for paychecks.'  A bonus IS a paycheck.  I find it interesting that no major media outlets (other than the finance-specific press) are interested in telling this side of the story.