Comments on: John Thain: What Was He Thinking

By: KC

KC — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:46:18 +0000

Those prices are just amazing. I’m doing a lot of redecorating in my house lately. I don’t exactly have a budget and I’m not cutting corners, but those prices are incredible. Even the most expensive fabrics I’ve looked at aren’t as expensive as what he paid. Are they exotic fabrics hand-made by elves and fairies in Tibet or something? How could they be that costly?

By: rubin pham

rubin pham — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:20:44 +0000

this is the typical behavior of corporate american executives.
even more sadly, it is even true for the typical manager in a government organization.

By: RJ - Our Financial Planner

RJ - Our Financial Planner — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:25:49 +0000

Thanks for the article.

It’s good to know, I’m looking for a house that’s 1/6 of what he renovated his office for.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:45:13 +0000

Thain was lying. He was only hired by Merrill after the company was in terrible financial shape and had posted quarter after quarter of losses.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:25:12 +0000

I’m sick and tired of hearing people bad mouth Thain. His job as CEO was to maximize shareholder value, and boy did he ever, convincing one of the largest banks in the world to buy the place for $50 Billion, which turns out to be at least $50 Billion more than it was worth. I’m not sure I’d want to work for him, but I’d be happy to have him work for me.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:19:34 +0000

I could pay off my house for the price of those curtains. Twice almost!

I need a bailout:-P

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:40:35 +0000

A “commode” is a small table with drawers – and not a toilet in this case – but it’s still way overpriced. Even on Wall Street, most people work in relatively simple cube farms, with some fancier stuff in the lobby or customer meeting areas.

As for the comment about public companies; a friend of mine who worked there for about 20 years says that Wall Street’s downfall was when the old partnerships “went public”. After that, the partners were playing with “house money” and only cared about cashflow, not risk.

Before that, traders were using the partners’ money, and the partners made darn sure they knew where the risks were.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:07:26 +0000

There’s the everyday “entitlement” that lots of Americans suffer from, and then there’s the Wall Street corporate exec brand of “entitlement.”

One large way they differ? Price tags.

If I were running the show, Mr. Thain (and a cadre of his closest buddies) would be doing the perp walk.

By: cpa1298

cpa1298 — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:36:26 +0000

I’ve come to the conclusion that publicly traded companies are basically like many not-for-profits; they exist largely for the benefit of management and not the owners.

I would like to never invest in equities again, but I don’t know where to put my money where it can grow faster than inflation. Maybe I should just stick with bank/credit union certificates of deposit and sleep soundly.

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:36:40 +0000

This is disgusting and one of the reasons I left Merrill Lynch in 2006. I was sick and tired of apologizing to my clients for things like this. And sadly, these examples of corporate excess and no accountability seemed to happen more frequently leading up to my departure. Scary to think about all the crap a firm like Merrill does that doesn’t make it to the press.