Buzzflash
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Mixx it!
RedditMerrill Lynch CEO John Thain wants an end of year bonus. He's seen his bank through some hard times, he says, and saved company jobs by deciding to sell Merrill to Bank of America. Merrill Lynch's stock price (which he was hired to pump up) is down: from over $50 a share when he came on board, to $13.04 at Friday's close of market. Still, Thain, thinks he'd done a good job, and recession or no recession, 53 year-old Thain has asked his board for a $10 million bonus.
Thain already receives $750,000 in annual salary, not including benefits. He scored a $15 million cash bonus when he signed with Merrill last year. It's hard to believe he's burnt through all that but nonethelss, he's pitching for his reward. And some think he deserves it. After all his request has shrunk dramatically (down from over $30 million, reports the Wall Street Journal.)
Will Bank of America (now Merrill Lynch's owners) approve $10 million extra to Merrill's CEO even as they're cutting off credit to companies like Chicago's Republic Windows? It's not clear that BOA's board has to approve. But it makes you think.
Merrill Lynch wasn't bailed out, it was bought up, by Bank of America -- which then in turn received $25 billion from the Fed. Call it "bail-out by buy-out," it's still thanks to tax payer dollars. Congress could have demanded a seat on the board of companies they help like BOA. But they didn't. (If they had, we the taxpayer, via Congress, might have had a say in compensation cases like this one.) As it is, the boards will decide without us.
But Merrill Lynch and Bank of America should be prepared to hear from their clients. That $10 million dollars could probably keep doors open at Republic Windows and Doors for months.
Final note: when talking about the auto bail-out, conservative columnists go to town talking about union workers' "extravagant pay and benefits packages." Funnily enough, in today's front page Journal feature on Thain the word "extravagant" never crops up. Indeed, accroding to the Journal, Mr. Thain's request "is still relatively small by Wall Street standards."
UPDATE: BY END OF DAY MONDAY, the Journal was reporting that "Merrill CEO Thain, who had been seeking a multimillion-dollar bonus, today requested he not receive one." Score one for shame.
Laura Flanders is the host of RadioNation and GRITtv. Watch GRITtv on Free Speech TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415) on cable (8 pm ET on Channel 67 in Manhattan) or online at GRITtv.org.
Share this article
- Atrios
- Arts and Letters Daily
- The Caucus
- Campus Progress
- Crooks and Liars
- The Daily Gotham
- Daily Kos
- Echidne of the Snakes
- Ezra Klein
- FAIR
- Feministe
- Feministing
- Firedoglake
- Glenn Greenwald
- Gothamist
- In these Times
- Hendrik Hertzberg
- Huffington Post
- Hullabaloo
- Matthew Yglesias
- Media Matters
- Mother Jones
- My DD
- New York Review of Books
- Openleft
- Pam's House Blend
- Pandagon
- Political Wire
- The Progressive
- RaceWire
- Real Clear Politics
- Roberto Lovato
- Romenesko
- Swing State Project
- Talking Points Memo
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Tapped
- Tech President
- Tompaine
- The Washington Note
- Utne Reader
- Wonkette
- ZNet
RSS
"Merrill Lynch wasn't bailed out, it was bought up, by Bank of America -- which then in turn received $25 million from the Fed."
I know it gets confusing since $25 million sure seems like a lot of money, but I believe "billion" is the correct denomination here.
Now that --25 billion-- may not seem like much to the banker types, but it is enough money to constitute a stack of crisp one hundred dollar bills 75,000 feet high into the sky --14 miles or so.
That's twice the height of a typical commercial flight.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/08/2008 @ 5:24pm
Coming in and losing almost 12 billion dollars and then selling a venerable company that lived through lots of tough times, like the Depression, and expecting to get a bonus for that? Does he understand what a bonus is for?
Posted by binq56 at 12/08/2008 @ 5:29pm
And people what happened in America, need I say more? Didn't he learn anything after GM's exec's flew to Washington in their private jets, only to crawl back later with their tails between their legs? What a moron...
Posted by DaveatLarge at 12/08/2008 @ 5:45pm
"Does he understand what a bonus is for?" ~Binq56
Probably not, I'm guessing. But then, this cancer has already metastasized throughout Wall Street --and Washington too. That's why we're where we're at, quite obviously.
Why does it all too often appear to take a mammoth disaster before an effective address is even formulated?
Astounding isn't it? Or perhaps more accurately, confounding.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/08/2008 @ 5:53pm
'24/11/2008 19:31 MOSCOW, November 24 (RIA Novosti) - A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.
Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily Izvestia published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."
The paper said Panarin's dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year's events.
When asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said: "It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving. Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world's financial regulator."
When asked who would replace the U.S. in regulating world markets, he said: "Two countries could assume this role: China, with its vast reserves, and Russia, which could play the role of a regulator in Eurasia."
Asked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: "A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings....'
Posted by OneVote at 12/08/2008 @ 6:25pm
Posted by OneVote @ 6:25
I think Igor Panarin is, perhaps, a trifle off base here.
But it's also possible that he's not off by much. That's a thought that ought to scare the bejezus out of folks --if they were actually paying close attention that is.
Oh well. Things are almost sure to get really interesting, in any case, I predict.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/08/2008 @ 6:31pm
Oh well. Things are almost sure to get really interesting, in any case, I predict.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/08/2008 @ 6:31pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Time can be the savior of many prognostications and prognosticators. I wonder what the timelime was for his prediction 10 years ago?
If our federal government continues to be part of the problem and not part of the solution, things should be really really interesting. If things get bad enough....maybe anything goes. Russia doesn't seem quite ready to fill that vacuum as he suggested - and his "analysis" is probably a "tad" biased.
Posted by OneVote at 12/08/2008 @ 6:55pm
well...we have been greedily stupid now for a couple of decades now, but i think panarin's predictions of a political break up are wishful thinking...and premature.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 12/08/2008 @ 7:16pm
well...we have been greedily stupid now for a couple of decades now, but i think panarin's predictions of a political break up are wishful thinking...and premature.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 12/08/2008 @ 7:16pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Note:
Panarin, 60, is a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has authored several books on information warfare...........
Most folks think he is kind of a self serving nut, but it is humorous to read that many are not opposed to the idea of breakup!
Posted by OneVote at 12/08/2008 @ 7:30pm
Of course he shouldn't!
The best thing to do to a clown like this is to have him spend the rest of his life serving taquitos at his local 711.
Posted by TexasFlood at 12/08/2008 @ 8:08pm
Is this man serious...how many more are there out there waiting to fill bank accounts with yet more bonuses!!! This whole business is getting out of hand...the country is in a recession and this fool is expecting a 10 million dollar bonus!!!! It's almost like they don't live in the real world, how can he justify that when people all across this country are losing jobs day after day, losing their homes and so on. It makes your mind boggle at how insensitive these fools can be to even think of expecting this kind of pay out when people are struggling all over.
Posted by Caj at 12/08/2008 @ 8:28pm
Posted by OneVote at 12/08/2008 @ 7:30pm | ignore this person | warn this person
nothing lasts for ever...but...we need each other too much to break u right now...lol...
nonetheless it IS interesting people's attitudes towrd the subject.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 12/08/2008 @ 9:00pm
</i>
Posted by Malcontent at 12/08/2008 @ 10:01pm
Jesus, what unbelievable arrogance.
Somebody with common sense must have turned up the heat for him to retract that demand so quickly.
Our country has gone insane. But you already knew that.
Dear Nation IT person,
Please kill the italics per Malcontent's request. Very hard to read for older eyes.
Posted by jackwells at 12/09/2008 @ 3:44pm