NYT editorial: It’s Not Their Money
What is it with American bankers and their sense of entitlement?
After losing billions, taking billions from taxpayers and avoiding disaster only by selling itself to Bank of America, Merrill Lynch was still ready to give a multimillion-dollar “performance” bonus to its chief executive, John Thain. It refrained only after a storm of protest that reached from Main Street to Capitol Hill.
As it turns out, the outrage was not enough to stop the flow of money to other executives. According to a report in The Financial Times on Thursday, Merrill granted $3 billion to $4 billion in bonuses in December — part of a total compensation budget of $15 billion for the year that was just slightly less than that of 2007.
The year-end bonuses were approved by Merrill’s compensation committee just days after shareholders approved the merger and days before Bank of America was made aware of Merrill’s stunning fourth-quarter losses. The news of the rushed bonuses almost prompted Bank of America to pull out of the deal and ultimately required the Treasury to provide an extra $20 billion, as well as a guarantee on billions more in potential losses.
(More here.)
After losing billions, taking billions from taxpayers and avoiding disaster only by selling itself to Bank of America, Merrill Lynch was still ready to give a multimillion-dollar “performance” bonus to its chief executive, John Thain. It refrained only after a storm of protest that reached from Main Street to Capitol Hill.
As it turns out, the outrage was not enough to stop the flow of money to other executives. According to a report in The Financial Times on Thursday, Merrill granted $3 billion to $4 billion in bonuses in December — part of a total compensation budget of $15 billion for the year that was just slightly less than that of 2007.
The year-end bonuses were approved by Merrill’s compensation committee just days after shareholders approved the merger and days before Bank of America was made aware of Merrill’s stunning fourth-quarter losses. The news of the rushed bonuses almost prompted Bank of America to pull out of the deal and ultimately required the Treasury to provide an extra $20 billion, as well as a guarantee on billions more in potential losses.
(More here.)
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