Merrill Lynch spent $1.22 million redecorating for John Thain

Congress and Obama need to be extremely heistant to provide any additional money the mega banks that have caused much of the current financial mess. I resent that taxpayer money is going to these kind of organizations. Mr. Thain should be liable to stockholders for this type of expenditure. Acutally he should be in jail.

Why aren't these people in jail? Why is there no accountability for the Billions of dollars the American people have given to bail out these thieving corp. execs. We can hope that President Obama will end this madness.

Obama is just as bad, spending 100k to redo the family quarters in the white house, this could be a years salary for four families. It was good enough for the Bush family. Obama has spent a fortune on the whole inaugural festivities, train rides, parties, catering, security, limos u name it. Its pathetic.

I think every CEO ought to have a decorating account of at least 5 million. I mean, who wants to sit and lose your money looking at a worn carpet and ugly furniture.

Wall Street, and, the automobile industry, should be told to bail themselves out.

This makes me sick to my stomach. How can anyone be stupid enough to pay that much money for office decore. Over a $1000 bucks for a plastic wastebasket is absolutely moronic. He needs that wastebasket put on his head and then beat it with a baseball bat. UNBELEIVABLE!!!

Let us all remember JOHN THAIN--no matter how smart, intelligent, savvy or whatever---let's make sure he never works again. He has plenty of money to survive on, but please, please no one ever give him an opportunity to work again. That is his penalty, so salve for his horrendous ego. Unlike other writers who have literally called for his head---I would like to see him waste away trying to set up golf matches and cocktail parties.

TJ4820 is right on the money. Did you think Morgenthau would prosecute such high profile Jews? Ha!

And he probably has an obscene "golden parachute" for when he leaves M/L

Of course it was at the expense of the stock holders and the tax payers. Corporate excess should be punishable by homosexual rape in federal prison.

Now I know why my 401K is dropping by $1,000 every month. He needs to work for minimum wage, take out one of those great investments with Merrill-Lynch and then see what it's like. Unfortunately, sleeze don't get punished. How are the average American suppose to react to seeing people who have lost millions of dollars to a Ponzi scheme? I can't buy a house, retire, or do anything I had planned to do.

how do these f---heads get away with this spending money like it is nothing...................i don't get it.........the budget i live on is so tight, i keep my heat set on 60 degrees and walk around in two sets of pajamas. 87,784 dollars would last me til i die.........guess i'm just a poor smuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope someone craps on his rug.

Obscene? Of course. What to do? Simple. Go to your locally owned small bank and tell them to prepare to receive your mortgage, credit cards, savings, checking, retirement and mutual fund accounts. Your local CEO probably makes between $100-250K/year, dependiing upon the size and scope of the bank. This is reasonable, at least compared to Wall Street standards of multi-million signing bonuses and the same sized severance packages.
We have the power people! Exercise it!

The sugestion of everyone using local small banks as much as possible sounds like a great soulution. they are locally owned (usually well managed) and are certinly an asset to any community. They keep a lot of the money in the community.
This can not always be done but to do it as much as possible will bring some control back to the average depositer and here will see no differance in services except maybe more personal.

nate

OK, so just to put this in a different perspective. If Mr. Thain made $83million dollars a year in compensation, spending 1 million on re-doing his office is a "mere" 1/83 of his compensation. So if I make say $41,500/yr., its like me spending $500 to redecorate a room. That's not outrageous.

As for slipping in end of year bonuses before the final transfer to BOA, I know for a fact that the average Joe/Jane programmer at Merrill only got about $1000 and will probably not have a job in another couple of weeks. Most average Joe/Jane programmers at other companies that traditionally give bonuses would normally get WAY more than that.

what an a.. hole!

I have accounts in 2 banks. BOA, just in the last 2 months have added "service fees" to all types of accts. Having been a customer as the same bank has changed names/ownership numerous times, just recently they began adding these fee's, i found a new one today on a bank statement. 12.00 mo. for savings, 5.95mo for checking. My other bank Comerica began charging a 10.00 mo. srvice fee on checking accounts. I'm sure fee's will soon follow for savings. When asked, they informed me i must make at least 4 transactions per mo. but no more than 6 to avoid service fees. Also, on local news today it is reported Comerica is in financial trouble and will be adding more "service fees". Is there any banks left that won't pilfer from our accounts? I want to change banks but i don't know of any that aren't pulling this tactic of new "sevice fees".

OK, so just to put this in a different perspective. If Mr. Thain made $83million dollars a year in compensation, spending 1 million on re-doing his office is a "mere" 1/83 of his compensation. So if I make say $41,500/yr., its like me spending $500 to redecorate a room. That's not outrageous.

As for slipping in end of year bonuses before the final transfer to BOA, I know for a fact that the average Joe/Jane programmer at Merrill only got about $1000 and may not even have a job in another few weeks. Most average Joe/Jane programmers at other companies that traditionally give bonuses would normally get WAY more than that.

Let's build a max prison in Afghanistan and move the prisoners from Gitmo there to act as bait for the Taliban and Al-Queda. Then let's "treat" all these arrogant ass bankers and Wall Street miscreants that have bankrupted this country to an "extended vacation" (say 20 years!!) at Gitmo. Kills 2 bird with one stone !!!

And if you think a private company is bad for spending $1.22 Mil on one office, try swallowing the $174 Million that was just spend on Obama's coronation..er, I mean inauguration. I can't blame it all on Obama as he is just doing what others have done in the past.
But isn't it interesting, in the private sector, we throw retirement parties to commemorate the fine job you have done over the years. But only in government do you get a party thrown before you have even started!!!!!!! What a travesty of tax-payer money. Last time I had to throw a party for someone I admired, my friends and I all kicked in. It should would be nice if the inauguration was handled the same way. It should cost the tax payer ANYTHING!!!