On Monday (December 8th) the Wall Street Journal reported that Merrill Lynch CEO, Jeff Thain requested a $10M bonus.
I was speechless!
Mr. Thain believes he deserved this bonus for “holding-the-loss-line” at Merrill to a staggering $11.67 BILLION melt down and then astutely arranging the pennies-on-the-dollar sale to Bank of America. Sheez, I could have done that with one eye closed and never do balance my check book!
Jeff Thain
Being ever so “wise” and picking up on the backlash “buzz” he announced the very next day a sudden humbleness-change-of-mind (do you think the public anger and condemnation helped?) and retracted the request for this $10M taxpayer subsidized bonus! Has Mr. Thain ever once put his (mis)management and chicanery into human terms? We don’t need to be an economist to understand the games.
It’s getting harder and harder to underestimate the executive management intelligence in the financial/banking sector.
Photo courtesy AP.
On Christmas day the Paramount Pictures movie starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett opens. Called “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” it’s a story adapted from the 1920’s story by Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backward. Looks interesting.
Northwest Harley Blog 