DISQUS

RitornaVincitor · 11 months ago

Most employees with such an abysmal record of employment would lose their jobs - forget about any bonuses.

Dall · 11 months ago

He is one that may deserve some kind of bonus. He has only been on the job for a little over a year; therefore he did not get them into the mess. Second, he brokered a last minute deal from the hip to save his company and their shareholders from bankruptcy. In addition, he did it by convincing another company that his company had value and I think it was Leman that went under around the same time. He saved the shareholders from having nothing in bankruptcy.

My thought is that he might be the only CEO that may deserve some kind of bonus, while the prick that was there before him should be stripped of his.

Older_Wiser · 11 months ago

Thain made plenty of money at Goldman Sachs...witness his $10 million estate in Rye, NY. Anyone who feels he deserves that bonus ought to have their head examined. Merrill had to be sold--Thain notwithstanding. These guys are all incestuous in banking--Masters of the Universe, you know. Besides, by folding in Merrill, BofA gets a huge write off for any losses, and it just becomes another part of its investment arm, with Thain as president of the newly created "global strategies" division.

The guy is only 53 yrs old and he's already richer than Croesus.

Older_Wiser · 11 months ago

This is from the UK's Evening Standard, written when Thain was announced CEO of Merrill Lynch:

Thain accumulated much of his vast personal wealth at Goldman. As one of the senior players at the time of the bank's flotation in 1999, he collected around $150 million.

The size of his private home in Rye, a country village in New York's Westchester County, is testament to that. It is so big, in fact, that he pays property taxes in excess of $150,000 a year in two different towns 34 - Harrison and the City of Rye. The property is so big that it also sneaks across the boundary of Rye Brook, another village.

The $10 million mansion, in at least 10 acres of grounds, includes a small farm and several beehives, from which Thain used to collect honey with his youngest son each morning. It has 14 bedrooms and two swimming pools. A river runs through his back garden, feeding a lake stocked with fish.

But Thain's country home's worth is small compared with the $27.5 million he has just spent on a two-storey luxury apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

He and his wife often host lavish parties, most recently holding a fundraiser for John McCain, the Republican Presidential hopeful.

Now, does anyone feel sorry for Thain?

truebluecoondog · 11 months ago

"Oh, to live on....Sugar Mountain...."

Older_Wiser · 11 months ago

From Wikipedia:
Mr. Thain's memberships include:

MIT Corporation, Dean's Advisory Council – MIT Sloan School of Management,
INSEAD – U.S. National Advisory Board,
James Madison Council of the Library of Congress,
Gordon Gekko Fan Club Internationale,
Federal Reserve Bank of New York's International Capital Markets Advisory Committee[11],
French-American Foundation[12],
Board of Trustees of the National Urban League, and
the Trilateral Commission[13]
He serves as a governor at the New York-Presbyterian Foundation, Inc.[14]

Gordon Gekko fan club? Trilateral Commission? Heh.

bejammin075 · 11 months ago

"Hey, I drove the company into the ditch. It coulda been a lot worse! For example, I could have driven into the Grand Canyon. Now gimme ten million!"

chimichurri · 11 months ago

They won't get their 10 million this year but next year, they'll get 20.

voicewithin · 11 months ago

The board of directors should give him a pink slip then give him the boot! Don't let the door hit you on the down!

Http://www.ibelievethis.us

truebluecoondog · 11 months ago

Wow, that is SO SAD. What a tough Christmas it will be at the Thain household. No new vacation homes for the kids and grandkids. Am I bitter? You BET I am!

High Crimes & Misdemeanors · 11 months ago

Did anyone read Frank Rich's column??

You need to to understand the dangers of Obama's steller economic "dream team". Same shit, different day seems to be the case for Obama. This is not change.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/opinion/07ric...

tbhull · 11 months ago

You may be right.

Let us first wait and see. Faces and resumes mean nothing, policy and results matter.

Soaplady57 · 11 months ago

Like I've posted before, it is my understanding that a bonus is something that you receive for a job well done! None of these financial companies, who have been run into the ground, should have CEO's that GET bonuses because it appears that they did NOT do a good job. Stupid example: I once worked for a Mexican Restaurant as a waitress. One year, we kicked butt in sales, everybody got a good bonus including me, even though I only worked there for a few months. A couple of years later, one of the managers had ripped off the restaurant when she was buying a lot of cocaine on the side, sales were down...needless to say, we did not get any bonuses that year.

How is it that these guys feel they are entitled to bonuses in the first place, that is what I want to know. They've already got more money than they know what to do with!!

voicewithin · 11 months ago

He feels like he deserves a bonus because he limited the losses... Maybe! However Soaplady57 I agree with you!

From my book NO ONE should earn a $10,000,000.00 bonus regardless! Where are the stockholders? Overpaying CEO's like this one COSTS EVERYONE! Change needs to begin in the boardrooms across America! Stop excessive salaries and bonuses of CEO's, Presidents etc. We the American public are paying for their blunders!

http://www.ibelievethis.us