http://www.frumforum.com/justice-for-john-thain Building a conservatism that can win again Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:50:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.frumforum.com/justice-for-john-thain/comment-page-1#comment-52691 suey Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:17:56 +0000 #comment-52691 There is no excuse for any company to pay a bonus when it has made a loss in a year. If you do that in a normal company you are robbing the shareholders. If you do it in a tax funded (Nationalised) company they you are robing the taxpayer. There is no excuse for any company to pay a bonus when it has made a loss in a year. If you do that in a normal company you are robbing the shareholders. If you do it in a tax funded (Nationalised) company they you are robing the taxpayer.

]]> http://www.frumforum.com/justice-for-john-thain/comment-page-1#comment-53243 InTheMiddle12 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:39:40 +0000 #comment-53243 This is a topic I feel, in a small way, qualified to chime in about. I worked for Merrill Lynch during the Reagan era in the area that oversaw the corporate perks. The two helicopters, the corporate jet, helicopters, arena boxes, suites, etc. I was there during the move from One Liberty Plaza to the World Financial Center. It was a heady time, until Black Monday. I'm not a financial guru, by any stretch, but I remember having friendly arguments with the well heeled in the cafeteria about how greed and fear seemed to run the firm, relationships and decisions. I was told I didn't understand free markets, etc. And then came Black Monday, something those that argued with me said would never happen. 25% of staff went. I was one of them. The infamous ML executive floor was filled with ridiculously high end furnishingse and digs. Bonuses, though I wasn't one of the eligible, went out in February, not December. Clearly Thain, seeing the writing on the wall, changed the rules of the game. I fully expect people like this writer to justify his actions, because that is the nature of the Wall Street unconscious. I mean no disrespect however my experience, and again, I was there, in the thick of this culture, was always out of touch with the reality of the non-investment banker's realities. I could be much more specific but frankly what's the point? Merrill is gone, Thain will, in my belief, rightly be reviewed for the bonus scandal, and it is a scandal. None of it surprises me, not even the fact it's taken a catastrophic meltdown to force Merrill to its knees. And now we learn of $1,400 waste paper baskets. Trust me, that's nothing. You should have sitnessed the fights between CEO and COO and the executive floor over the corporate jet and how they were justified. Since tax payer money is now involved, you bet I want a full audit of what's gone on and full transparency on expenses. If it was Merrill's money and not tax payer money I'd think it was tasteless, but since countless tax payer dollars have now been poured into the firm, you bet I want accountability and if Thain turns out to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, so be it. The last decent leader that firm had was Roger Birk, a classy guy. After that, it went downhill. Just my two cents. This is a topic I feel, in a small way, qualified to chime in about. I worked for Merrill Lynch during the Reagan era in the area that oversaw the corporate perks. The two helicopters, the corporate jet, helicopters, arena boxes, suites, etc. I was there during the move from One Liberty Plaza to the World Financial Center. It was a heady time, until Black Monday. I’m not a financial guru, by any stretch, but I remember having friendly arguments with the well heeled in the cafeteria about how greed and fear seemed to run the firm, relationships and decisions. I was told I didn’t understand free markets, etc. And then came Black Monday, something those that argued with me said would never happen. 25% of staff went. I was one of them. The infamous ML executive floor was filled with ridiculously high end furnishingse and digs. Bonuses, though I wasn’t one of the eligible, went out in February, not December. Clearly Thain, seeing the writing on the wall, changed the rules of the game. I fully expect people like this writer to justify his actions, because that is the nature of the Wall Street unconscious. I mean no disrespect however my experience, and again, I was there, in the thick of this culture, was always out of touch with the reality of the non-investment banker’s realities. I could be much more specific but frankly what’s the point? Merrill is gone, Thain will, in my belief, rightly be reviewed for the bonus scandal, and it is a scandal. None of it surprises me, not even the fact it’s taken a catastrophic meltdown to force Merrill to its knees. And now we learn of $1,400 waste paper baskets. Trust me, that’s nothing. You should have sitnessed the fights between CEO and COO and the executive floor over the corporate jet and how they were justified. Since tax payer money is now involved, you bet I want a full audit of what’s gone on and full transparency on expenses. If it was Merrill’s money and not tax payer money I’d think it was tasteless, but since countless tax payer dollars have now been poured into the firm, you bet I want accountability and if Thain turns out to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, so be it. The last decent leader that firm had was Roger Birk, a classy guy. After that, it went downhill. Just my two cents.

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