Hilarious stuff from Wall Street:
Merrill Lynch & Co. chief John Thain has suggested to directors
that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered
securities firm's compensation committee is resisting his request,
according to people familiar with the situation.
As Patrick Appel observes Merrill lost $11 billion and its independence this year. And here's a fun snippet from Michael Lewis's terrific Portfolio piece on the sub-prime fiasco:
Not long after that, FrontPoint had a visit from Sanford C. Bernstein’s
Brad Hintz, a prominent analyst who covered Wall Street firms. Hintz
wanted to know what Eisman was up to. “We just shorted Merrill Lynch,”
Eisman told him.
“Why?” asked Hintz.
“We have a simple thesis,” Eisman explained. “There is going to be a calamity, and whenever there is a calamity, Merrill is there.” When it came time to bankrupt Orange County with bad advice, Merrill was there. When the internet went bust, Merrill was there. Way back in the 1980s, when the first bond trader was let off his leash and lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Merrill was there to take the hit. That was Eisman’s logic—the logic of Wall Street’s pecking order. Goldman Sachs was the big kid who ran the games in this neighborhood. Merrill Lynch was the little fat kid assigned the least pleasant roles, just happy to be a part of things. The game, as Eisman saw it, was Crack the Whip. He assumed Merrill Lynch had taken its assigned place at the end of the chain.
“Why?” asked Hintz.
“We have a simple thesis,” Eisman explained. “There is going to be a calamity, and whenever there is a calamity, Merrill is there.” When it came time to bankrupt Orange County with bad advice, Merrill was there. When the internet went bust, Merrill was there. Way back in the 1980s, when the first bond trader was let off his leash and lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Merrill was there to take the hit. That was Eisman’s logic—the logic of Wall Street’s pecking order. Goldman Sachs was the big kid who ran the games in this neighborhood. Merrill Lynch was the little fat kid assigned the least pleasant roles, just happy to be a part of things. The game, as Eisman saw it, was Crack the Whip. He assumed Merrill Lynch had taken its assigned place at the end of the chain.
But it's so nice to see a modest "million" after all those billions and trillions.
Posted by: dearieme | December 08, 2008 at 11:21 PM