Mitt Romney Considering Infamous Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO To Replace Geithner

[cali]

Mitt Romney is considering appointing a man who oversaw the implosion of a major Wall Street firm and got himself a $35,000 toilet while doing it as Treasury Secretary.

John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, is on Romney's short list of possible Treasury Secretary picks, the Wall Street Journal reports. He paid his executives massive bonuses before selling Merrill Lynch to Bank of America during the height of the financial crisis with the help of government bailout money. He tried to snag a $10 million bonus for himself as the firm was collapsing, and he even spent $1.2 million on remodeling his office -- including on a $35,000 toilet -- as Merrill Lynch was imploding. Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis pushed Thain out in January of 2009.

Buying Merrill Lynch has saddled Bank of America with massive mortgage losses, as well as legal costs. BofA recently agreed to pay $2.43 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it misled investors about Merrill Lynch's finances.

In addition to Thain, Romney is also considering Richard Kovacevich, former CEO of Wells Fargo; Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank; and Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School, as potential candidates for Treasury Secretary, according to the WSJ.

<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/02/mitt-romney-merrill-lynch_n_1933015.html?utm_hp_ref=business

[jsmirman]

1. John Thain? John Fucking Thain? Is he high?

Everyone on Wall Street thinks John Thain is a loser, a laughingstock, a failure.

That's on Wall Street.

John Thain? He can't be serious.

Dick Fuld must be on the same short list.

It must be the disgraced loser side of John Thain that Romney is attracted to.

John Thain couldn't get a job running a piggy bank.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Slippery Slope there , Paulson, Bernanke

And Geithner ?

[jsmirman]

3. Wrong. John Thain is the Prince of Failure.

Forget any crookery, and general thoughts about Wall Street and what Wall Streeters get up to.

John Thain is a joke even on The Street.

It's the failure that is John Thain that makes this such a Romney classic.

You may dislike Paulson and Geitner, but they were good at being rapacious Wall Streeters. Forget him being a prince, John Thain is King Fail.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. Villain would be a better Title .

http://www.getnetworth.com/john-thain-net-worth/

[jsmirman]

13. Don't care what he's worth. His name is mud. He's been disgraced.

I'm sure it's nice to have all those bucks, but while Thain may not be haunted by the damage that he caused, he is haunted by the fact that his big moment on the world stage ended in humiliation. There is really no recovering from that, ever. And men like Thain tend to care about their legacies. His legacy is failure, forevermore.

[orpupilofnature57]

14. He's the misanthrope that helped us out, no doubt

And he and the rest of the ' Royal Scam ' should be in prison . But the people that look up to those " Legacies " are a big part of the problem, I give two shits about money in general and the pigs that horde it, but it's his ilk that are our enemy and not to be revered when they're on top. Look at ALL the CEO's that put us here,the same glib sons of bitches we still trust and reward for throwing dice with our Future, and given the opportunity would again, and believe me I won't be enabling anyone but Barack Obama .

[longship]

5. Why not Lehman's Dick Fuld? Or, AIG's Joseph Cassano?

The two of them crashed the world economy, the latter almost literally.

[hughee99]

6. Since he's scraping the bottom of the barrel anyway, I hear Jon Corzine is looking for work. n/t

[jsr]

7. Why is he not in jail?

[orpupilofnature57]

9. Because he was revered and enabled by misanthropes

and Alan " I thought they'd police themselves " Greenspan .

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Romney is a Trojan Horse for Wall Street

They're dying for him to be elected.

[hay rick]

10. Or maybe he will just keep Geithner. What more could they possibly want?

[orpupilofnature57]

15. He' definitely worked for someone, Who ?

He has more wrinkles than me one second and looks like a teenager the next, his glib, uzi responses that always seem to be getting him off a hook , rather than how he intended getting us online. Never trusted him or any of the racket scientists that helped get us here .

[TBF]

11. I swear Romney wants to lose - this is crazy. nt

[MiniMe]

12. Mitt, you have to win the election before you can appoint anybody

And then the Senate has to approve the appointment.

[orpupilofnature57]

16. Those are good thoughts