Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spent over $1.22 million to renovate his office in early 2008

[malaise]

http://consumerist.com/5137115/merrill-lynch-ceo-spent-1220000-on-office-renovation-as-company-prepared-to-burn
<snip>
Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spent over $1.22 million to renovate his office in early 2008, just as his firm was getting ready to slash thousands of jobs, cut back on spending and dump businesses. Here's this douchebag's big-ticket tally of personal aggrandizement in the midst of financial crisis:

$800,00 to hire celebrity designer Michael Smith. He's interior-decorating Obama's White House. For $100,000, and mixing in items from Target.
$87,000 for a fucking area rug. I think I could buy all of the area rugs in stock at my local IKEA for $87,000, and have enough money left over to buy all my fellow shoppers an all-you-can eat Swedish Meatball feast. Then invest the remainder in high-yield moon-backed derivatives.
$87,000 two guest jerkface chairs
$44,000 another goddamn area rug
$37,000 six chairs for private dining room. Who has a dining room in their office?
$35,000 "commode on legs." I'm guessing that's a claw-footed toilet. Bad choice. Those gather dust underneath like nobodies business, let me tell you.
$28,000 four stupid curtains
---------------
Lock them up and throw away the key

[madinmaryland]

1. I worked there in the late 90's and those folks

spent money like drunken sailors!

They built a Merrill Lynch museum, including a small cinema to show the history of merrill. The whole thing was well over $5 million.

[malaise]

2. But even drunken sailors attempt to stay sober when

the ship is sinking. These people are mad.

[grannie4peace]

3. you are a gold mine -amigo :):)

:wtf: :hi:

[malaise]

6. I can't fathom this level of ostentation grannie4peace

These criminals don't give a flying fugg about public opinion.
Remember how Congress humiliated the car industry men - not a word about the lifestyles of the bankers.

[grannie4peace]

7. what bugs me also is then the public blames obama because of ignorance

[malaise]

8. Like the moronic post that was deleted

:rofl:

[malaise]

13. Haahahahahhaha

KOs Worst person in the world :rofl:

[Turbineguy]

4. The repubs gave these guys a chance

to get into commercial banking and in less than 8 years they cause economic collapse. Does anyone expect he would not spend that kind of money fixing up that dump he had for an office?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nichomachus]

9. If only the original article hadn't taken a gratuitous slap at the Obamas

In a Daily Beast/CNBC exclusive, Charlie Gasparino reveals how Merrill Lynch’s CEO spent over $1 million and hired the Obamas' decorator to redecorate his office last year—even as the firm faced a financial crisis.

We're right back to the '90s, where every scandal -- not matter who was involved in it -- had to have some obligatory link back to the Clintons.

[malaise]

12. NBC did the same a few minutes ago n/t

[KharmaTrain]

10. They Had "Money To Burn"...

I'll never forget an investment banker acquaintance who used that term to describe the large amounts of companies like ML and Smith Barney and JP Morgan were making...obscene amounts that went to not only pay dividends, big salaries and massive bonuses, but the expense accounts were out of this world. Free vacations, lavish decorating and entertaining expense accounts...the money was flowing and there for the taking and using.

Here's hoping upcoming stockholder meetings include people with torches and pitchforks. They were the ones who got screwed and are now left holding the bag.

Cheers...

[malaise]

11. He's gone

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aF.bqMdzXm0Q&refer=home
<snip>
John Thain, who engineered the sale of 95-year-old Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp. in September, was ousted after Merrill’s $15.4 billion loss forced the lender to seek more money from the U.S. government.

Thain, 53, “agreed his situation was not working out and that he should resign,” Bank of America spokesman Robert Stickler said in an e-mail today. His exit ends Thain’s tenure with the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank less than a month after Merrill’s takeover was completed.

Thain negotiated the sale with Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis, 61, whose credibility was undercut when the brokerage reported a record fourth-quarter deficit. Lewis, who considered backing out of the deal when he learned of the extent of Merrill’s losses last month, went ahead at the insistence of U.S. regulators who provided a new $138 billion aid package.

While Thain agreed to forgo a bonus for 2008, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating bonuses paid to Merrill executives in late December, just before the deal closed, a person familiar with the probe said. Merrill normally paid bonuses in January or February.

[sfpcjock]

14. Merrill is now the albatross of B of A . Surprise!

Tonight the PBS Nightly Business Report's financial commentator Alan Sloan of Fortune said: "the recent Bank of America purchase of Merrill Lynch is looking like a total fiasco. Letting commercial banks go into investment banking destabilized the whole investment banking business."

[Stinky The Clown]

15. How quickly these morons forget those who walked before them ......

The symbol of all this was this $6,000 butt ugly shower curtain.

[malaise]

16. They sure do

Great pix

[justabob]

17. disgusting

I have no problem with executives having an nice, stylish office, but 1.22 million is just obscene and totally uncalled for. I'd say even decorating a large estate for that much is over the top. What is wrong with these people?!