I suppose we should be used to this by now. A wealthy CEO of some large corporation doles out money he doesn't have right before his corporation goes under or gets bought out.
John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, which was sold in a fire sale to Bank of America to prevent it from completely going the way of Lehman Brothers, moved up the date that bonuses were given out from January to December. This would be because BofA was due to take over Merrill on January 1. It's true that he did not take a bonus himself, but considering he spent $1.2 million last year having his office redecorated, I'm not feeling the least bit magnanimous toward the guy.
BofA is in a world of hurt, and has received billions in bailout money. News comes today that Merrill was not very forthcoming about the amount of losses that BofA was going to take over, and so John Thain has been shown the door. But he is just the latest in a long line of CEOs who are seemingly unconcerned about the massive debt that the taxpayers will be shouldering on behalf of these banks and other companies.
It's too bad we are no longer in the days of tar and feathers and riding people out of town on rails. There are a few I could think of who would deserve it.
