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i lolled
i lolled
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He didn't spend that money alone, the Board of Directors probably put it in his contract.
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Wall Street Journal is reporting that Thain submitted his resignation a short time ago, probably due to things like this hitting the press. Gross entitlements are fine apparently as long as it's kept private but when it starts affecting PR then all bets are off.
Don't forget- he did this back in the days before telling people you're the CEO of Merril Lynch would get you spat on.
Not long before, but before.
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@homerjay wants Boston Legal back!: In all due respect, the CEO he replaced, Stanley O'Neal was responsible for this mess. John Thain was brought in to clean it up. I'm pretty sure he wanted to get all the dirt out up front, but quickly realized he'd be out of a job if he did so. The best he could do is decorate his office and look for some poor sucker to buy it.
\"Why hello there Ken Lewis, did I ever tell you how much I admire your money, err, executive prowes?\" Well if you thought Countrywide was a deal wait till I show you this!?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-83385-100x100.png\")
Meh. This doesn't bother me. I am not a Merril Lynch shareholder. Did the government give ML any bailout money?
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-542662-100x100.png\")
@sleze69: The government didn't have to give ML any buyout money. They gave a second cash infusion to BoA on Jan 15 because they woudln't be able to complete the buyout of Merrill otherwise. ([www.charlotteobserver.com])
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@sleze69: They gave BofA money to purchase Merrill. Also, you may not have noticed it recently but they just gave them $20 Billion more in the past week.
HA nancies. That word always makes me laugh. Good call.
Wow, that's only 9+ times what we spent to buy our house last year... but our house didn't come with a claw footed crapper or \"sconces\"...
Is that $80,000 or $800,000 to hire Michael Smith?
Either way, he could have hired me instead, I'd only have charged him $15,000.
Funny how $800,000 for Michael Smith is completely ridiculous when referring to Wall Street...but when your boy Barack Obama hired him to renovate the White House (look it up), it's no big deal. Thain used private money for his. Barack used your income taxes.
@WillardEuterpe: Take another look at the facts...the Obama White House has $100,000 to redecorate with, and designer Smith is buying products from Target (presumably those he designed). That's a long ways from the $1.2 million spent by this assbag to \"redecorate\" when he knew that his company was circling the drain....
Uh-huh. And that ridiculous $235,000 Bathroom renovation by Bush's Interior Sec Dirk Kempthorne - of Taxpayer dollars - was OK??? Especially those monogrammed towels.
But at least bush only spent $62,000 on his \"much-loved\" rug.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-16563-100x100.png\")
@WillardEuterpe: How much did Saint Reagan spend on renovations? (hint, vastly more than a hundred grand, on the china alone).
Err, leaving aside the $5 gazillion dollar hole in our budget, thanks to our most recent Republican President. Hell, if giving Bush $200,000 drapes would have kept him too busy to do 1/10th of what they did, it'd be a bargain...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-529488-100x100.png\")
@WillardEuterpe: $800,000 is nothing compared to the $170m we just footed for the inauguration.
Come on, can it, ok? Be glad they hired an 800 thousand designer who is willing to shop at Target then some blown-out-of-proportion-egotist who insists on buying everything from some designer boutique.
And, I'm sorry - this is the 21st century. We no longer call African-Americans \"boy.\"
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@Oranges w/ Cheese:
1. \"Your boy Soandso\" is a direct reference translating to \"Soandso, this guy for which you have been cheering for\".
2. The $170 Million is a lot, but that quoted figure also includes private contributions since, unlike political contributions, have no cap, so saying it's all taxpayer money is slightly disingenuous.
3. So, they had this special on The History Channel the other day about Air Force One. The basics like military-grade security and redundancy and being a flying White House had me going \"ooh, that's nice.\" But then they got into the bedroom, the live video-conference room, the opulent trimmings and dining and silverware and red carpets and limousines and by the end of it all I just was so disappointed. Hearing Bushyboy talk about it being one of the great luxuries of the presidency and I was sad that we as a nation have to be so arrogant that our leaders can't even fathom TRAVELING humbly.
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\"$5,000 40 yards of fabric for wall panels. That's actually a pretty good deal.\"
No it's not. Loved the article, though.
Sincerely,
A Home Economist
Yeah, but that $87,000 really tied the room together.
@kimsama: The following conversation took place later:
BoA Rep #1: \"You spent 1.2 million dollars renovating your personal office when the company was hemorrhaging money?!\"
Thain: \"Relax dude, nothing is fucked-\"
BoA Rep #1: \"NOTHING is FUCKED?! The PLANE has crashed into the goddamn MOUNTAIN!\"
BoA Rep #2: \"This is our problem, dude.\"
@kimsama:
The Dude: Walter, what is the point? Look, we all know who is at fault here, what the fuck are you talking about?
Walter Sobchak: Huh? No, what the fuck are you... I'm not... We're talking about unchecked aggression here, dude.
Donny: What the fuck is he talking about?
The Dude: My rug.
Walter Sobchak: Forget it, Donny, you're out of your element!
The Dude: Walter, the chinaman who peed on my rug, I can't go give him a bill, so what the fuck are you talking about?
Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you talking about? The chinaman is not the issue here, Dude. I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT... Also, Dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
The Dude: Walter, this isn't a guy who built the railroads here. This is a guy...
Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you...?
The Dude: Walter, he peed on my rug!
Donny: He peed on the Dude's rug.
Walter Sobchak: Donny you're out of your element! Dude, the Chinaman is not the issue here!
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These old-money douches never seem to have a grasp on reality, do they?
This is the same dick who wanted to get his bonus because he was able to get ML to lose LESS money than expected.
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@Papercutninja: speaking of paying the drivers, more specifically, his chauffeur was paid $230,000 per annum, not by Thain (as he should've), but from the ML company till!! !!!
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@Papercutninja:
How dare you question me on what I spend on my office. There are only a handful of people in the world that are special enough to do what I can do. I am one of the choosen ones, the cream of the crop, the fruit of the loom....I am the great and powerful John Thain.(Coming soon to a financial instutition near you).
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@Papercutninja: Can SOMEONE put the South-Park-inspired \"Biggest Douche In the Universe\" into production? The timing is perfect for it! There are soooo many rich douches out there and I'd sooo love for Howie Mandel to stop harassing struggling actors and make Madoff, Thain or similar look like fools on TV.
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@Papercutninja: Precisely the reason they augured in businesses to start with.
And if this was his office redo can you imagine the money for private jets, country club memberships, private drivers, etc that Merrill Lynch spent on this d*ckface?
If you want a snap shot of that type of stuff read up on GE's Welch's divorce papers from the early 2000's and you'll see how muany comps that CEO's get for \"free\" in order to move around in the raried air of other CEO's...
I love how it's so easy to copy and paste the expense list and then put in, uhhh, stimulating comments for each one, but it's too much to ask for Consumerist not to misspell Merrill Lynch every time there's a story about it.
Regardless, this is Wall Street greed at its worst. I'm glad these guys are getting exposed for the ridiculous fleecing they've done of their paying customers as guardians of their funds. As another commenter pointed out, I'm sure it's stories like these along with his abrasive personality that got him in way over his head at Bank of America and likely lead to his departure today.
That was clearly intended as sarcasm.
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Was the fucking area rug actually used for fucking? Cause then I'm totally behind this.
CNBC tore into him this morning.
You know it's going to get nasty when a reporter starts out with \"we know that he is a nice guy, but...\".
Busted. He's gone, gone, gone. About time too!
They referred to the article mentioned above.
Of course the rug cost $87,000. It was special.
It REALLY tied the room together.
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@Cafezinha FINALLY HAS HER STAR--OMGYAYTHXHORTENSE!:
The CEO of Merrill Lynch draws a lot of water in this town. You don't draw shit.
Walter, the chinaman who peed on my rug, I can't go give him a bill, so what the fuck are you talking about?
@MasterShake: It's a reference to the Big Lebowski. I'm Asian American and even I found this comment funny. Both of youse need to find your sense of humor or watch the Big Lebowski...preferably both and in that order.
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Wow. I first read that as meaning refurbishment of OfficeS (plural) meaning the building. To spend that much on one office is the height of opulence...
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He also pursued a $10 million bonus a little while back, after they went down in flames. I think even the shareholders shut him down on that.
On a similar note, I think I hate John Thain the most of any of these CEO failures.
@downwithmonstercable: John Mack is my most hated. Look what he did to Morgan Stanley. Granted i'm biased because the former CEO is a relative but still, everything that bag of dicks touches loses billion of dollars.
and I blew $79 at Walmart for my computer desk! *sigh*
I think I would have opted for an executive bedroom and hot secretary rather than a dining room and chandelier.
I think the $35,000 for the \"commode on legs\" was just the bookkeeper's shorthand for the $35,000 of petty cash that Thain pocketed for himself.
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I subscribe to Lewis Black's assessment of the situation: if you're going to spend tons of money on something completely unnecessary, make sure no one else has it or has the possibility of getting it.
I'd tell you exactly what to buy but I'm sure it'd get me disemvowelled. Suffice to say it's part of Martha Stewart that's not being used and it goes well with any decor.
It's obvious that these bankers run the United States. And they are laughing at all of us as we go broke, go hungry and go without. Why aren't Americans outraged over this?
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It's easy for most of us to say this guy is materialistic. And I believe he is. But last time I checked, most of the world's population lives on $2 a day or less. Most. I wonder how these people view our extravagant spending? To most of the world, I look like a materialistic scumbag for owning a condo and two cars.
The lesson I have learned in the past few years is that the meaning of \"extravagant\" sometimes has a different meaning depending on who you talk to. The desk I write on cost $150, more than most people in the world make in a month. I am filthy rich while being near or at the US poverty level for income.
I'm not trying to justify a CEO's extravagant spending when his company was in jeopardy. But I would imagine this guy didn't see his spending as extravagant any more than I saw my desk purchase as such.
@snowburnt: As I said, I'm not justifying this guy's behavior. I'm just making an observation that the \"average middle class American\" and him are not that far off. It all depends on whose perspective you buy into.
@GuinevereRucker: GR- wikipedia quotes Thain as making $83.1million in 2007. You would think he could have at least brought an old $30,000 area run from home to help furnish his office...
@GuinevereRucker: That I understand. I can't even wrap my head around what $80,000 would look like, let alone imagine seeing it in my bank account.
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@GuinevereRucker: I don't disagree with you about the scalability of extravagance, but I don't think you and I are buying our IKEA desks with money that the government gave us to empower the financial markets, and I think that anybody with power over that much money should have enough sense to know what's likely to make your company look bad.
I suppose there's an upside in that it used to be that not getting the $80k area rug would make you look bad. It'll be interesting to see if the Obama moderation example makes that genuinely trendy.
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@GuinevereRucker: Nice try, but I'm pretty sure even the richest people would look at the guy with scorn.
you blow 1 and a quarter mill on your own personal office as you watch your company go down the drain? I guarantee he got a golden parachute as they pushed him out the window...This is among the worst cases of irresponsibility and fantasy.
I can see this guy sitting at the negotiating table with BoA with a book of carpet samples. Should we invest in this company...or a 4k trashcan? Should we do something about the bad debt dragging us down? Nah, spend 5k on fabric and another 87k on 2 chairs.
Don't compare this prick to the average middle-class american
Does this guy get the \"Pointy Haired Boss of the Year Award for 2008\" for all of this garbage???
(I make attribution to Scott Adams creator of the \"Dilbert\" comic strip for the PHB character.)
Why wasn't a modular cubicle good enough for this guy? Why did he need an office palace? Priorities kids. No integrity. When it isn't YOUR money you are spending, it is way too easy to waste money on your ego projects. Along with overpaying for Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, it is no wonder that BAC stock is at a 21 year low.
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Who the hell are these people who feel so entitled to be 1) compensated so ridiculously and 2) that they have to live so extravegantly-- maybe we should hire CEOs who believe they should work for a reasonable salary.
@floraposte: Most likely why they are a good company - the employees appreciate a boss they can identify with - not some higher-than-though executive who they can barely touch.
Though they're out of crocs :( And I am sad.
Right now ex-Tyco Dennis Kozlowski is sitting in prison yelling \"Yes!!!!\" as he listens to the news about John Thain and thinks about $6000 shower curtains and $1500 wastepaper baskets...
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I'm sensing a little destructive rage here. Was $1.22b not enough? Pix pls.
@BrawlerBarbie: That is $1.22 million. Still, a good sized town could be bought for that in the Dakotas...
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And to think about how many jobs he could have saved in his own company with the cash he squandered on his office.
Oh wait! He *had* to spend the money on such luxuries. After all, what would the other CEOs think of him if he did not ? Also, you need to give them personal accounts like this else you will never attract the top-shelf level of talent for your company.
/sarcasm
@Front_Towards_Enemy: Though he would never have fit into the culture at Walmart's Corp HQ. We definitely know that...
This is a mere bagatelle. According to today's Financial Times, Merrill accelerated bonus payments by a month last year, giving out $3-$4 billion 3 days before the buyout. Also, Thain was going to request a $10 million bonus for himself last December before ultimately deciding against it.
He shouldn't have demurred on his bonus. The company only lost $21.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. Without Thain, they might have had really big losses instead of this little set back.
You don't really think he actually spent all that money *on the stuff* do you? $30m hammer, anyone? Come on.
Peru has virgins?!
a commode on legs is not a toilet but a chest of drawers - but still a waste of $$$. What is interesting about M-L is back in October 2008, my kids high school was sending out letters to major companies asking for donations for their music program - they said that due to \"turns in the financial industry\" they were unable to donate. They asked for a corporate sponsorship of $100.00......
@VikramJaffe: Oh, that is just precious. I think that needs to make it into some front-page article about the company's downfall.
From the story link below:
Jay Ahr Atelier Party... Christie's Fetes Interior Designer Michael Smith...
by WWD Staff
Posted Monday October 20, 2008
\"...Christie's hosted a party for interior designer Michael Smith, who just released his first book, \"Houses.\" With the stock market crashing and unemployment on the rise, it was a little surreal. \"I've always tried to be sensible,\" said the guest of honor. \"People have never hired me to do a solid-gold bathroom. My work isn't flashy or showy, so it stays current whether times are good or bad.\" Among those at the dinner afterward at La Grenouille were Casey Ribicoff, Ralph Rucci and power agent Kevin Huvane.
John Thain, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch (which had to sell itself to Bank of America last month because of the subprime mortgage crisis), saw no problem with showing up for the party while his whole industry was tanking and employees at his company were seeing their portfolios go up in smoke. \"This, at least, is fun,\" he said, \"as opposed to the rest of the day.\"
I loved this quote from the affected staff writing the story \"employees at his company were seeing their portfolios go up in smoke\" so they actually couldn't bear to say \"JOBS\" but used the term \"portfolios\"...
You know Smith might as well have made a solid gold bathroom if he thinks $35,000 for a toilet is in good taste...
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This just in- John Thain spent over 2 million for secret sex dungeon!
Platinum nipple clamps- $200,000
Solid 24K Gold shackles- $350,000
Hand carved Brazilian cherry wood streching rack- $500,000
Ivory paddle with Silver accents- $40,000
Cat o' nine tails with each lash made from the skin of a different endangered animal- $750,000
14K Diamond ben wa balls- $250,000
Asian she male amputee dominatrix- $10,000 per hour
No, no, no. Everybody knows that the top-of-the-line cat o'nine tails comes with each lash made from the foreskins of endangered animals. Or, maybe he just wanted the plain model, so as not to look uncaring about endangered species. Seriously, FuryOfFirestorm, your list is eminently funnier than the original one!
@FuryOfFirestorm: Pfft, everybody knows that stretching racks start at well over $500k. I call shenanigans on your post.
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Not mentioned in the Consumerist posting but pointed out in the original, after being paid $800,000 for the \"design\" \"work\", Smith had the chutzpah to charge an additional $30,000 \"to pay the expenses Smith incurred in doing the work.\" And Thain signed off on this and all the other expenses. Even allowing the wild, stupid assumption that the design work was somehow worth $800,000 I would expect the designer to cover the $30k as the cost of doing business. That would still be amazingly low overhead as a percentage. If I had to guess, the $30k is close to what the design work was actually worth and the $800,000 was paying off the designer for supplying Thain with the finest cocaine and hookers.
@GearheadGeek: Thain has a $10million dollar estate in NY so $800k probably seemed like a good deal in order to get Smith in for some off-the-books decorating at home...
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The government should cap these salaries and bonuses. The only incentive these douchebags should get should be tied to stock options. No more golden parachutes allowed. That way, maybe they will care about turning their companies around.
Instead, they know they are getting 10-20 million either way, so they really don't care if the company goes down the crapper. All of these companies defend these outrageous salaries, then say they are necessary to attract the good \"talent\". What talent is that? Running a company into the ground, then bailing?
@Saboth: No, spineless scumbags and \"old boys\" on the boards should stop this insanity, because it is irresponsible and injurious to shareholders. They should be liable for penalties for their malfeasance. They go along because they hope to become a CEO someday, or because they already are a CEO somewhere else and they're afraid if they set a good example on a board they serve on, the members of their own board might want to emulate it. They are thieves and con-artists, but they have expensive suits and big paychecks so everyone just smiles and keeps paying them until all the filth finally comes out.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-298363-100x100.png\")
Labor to relamp the six wall sconces\" cost $3,000 [...]
Well, now we can answer the age-old riddle: How much does it cost to change a light bulb at Merrill Lynch!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-98962-100x100.png\")
At least his replacement will have a sweet office.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-784011-100x100.png\")
China would know what to do with him.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-350835-100x100.png\")
What really scares me about this sort of excess is that CEO's, other C??'s, Presidents, VP's, etc. look at this behaviour and think they should emulate it.
I got to watch one such VP do this short of shit while laying off half the workforce... then continue when he decided to move the operation after 60 years on the same site to a new location 80 miles away just because he wanted it closer to where he lived. Lost 100's of man years of experience in that move as the folks with skills and knowledge gave him the big digital salute.
Of course his toadies, brown nosers and HR scabs stayed by him. But of course they did most of them were related to him or from his crew of close personal friends. He had been firing to hire them over the previous 4 years. He even gave his best friends wife an exec job paycheck without her actually doing any work; absent every other day (I got to watch this for 6 months). Finally, canning a key person to give her a director's job that she couldn't possibly have the knowledge to do (and ending up hiring the key person back as a consultant).
And this is a publicly traded company...
Of course his bosses didn't mind... they do the same shit!
I worked for Merrill for several years on the retail side. Nothing would piss off the brokers more than hearing about the executive bonuses and then about a week later a DBS show the new and \"improved\" compensation plan for the brokers. It ususally involved a reduced payout to the ones earning the firm the money.
CEOs, VPs, and the other bigwigs do not need full time offices. They don't need to hide in an office. They need to be outside with the rest of the working folk in a cubicle, listening to what is happening, taking a pulse of what is happening on their watch.Hiding in an office is a surefire way for the kids to play on the CEOs watch. Isolated leaders miss 80% of the problems that could easily be fixed way before they become out of hand. Amazing how much more productive everyone becomes when the boss can hear and see everything going on.
This is the difference between a company CEO and an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur who built his or her own business from scratch would most likely never even think about doing these things. But when you're spending other people's money then it's a whole different story.
Seriously for borrowing all this tax payer money his office had better be decorated with a telephone wire spool for a desk and a couple lawn chairs and be DAMN GRATEFUL for them!
Same goes with Obama and his new office. WAY too much money given to redecorate. Should have to use the stuff from before and go to La-Z-Boy for the rest.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-436584-100x100.png\")
I wonder if Thain even realizes what he did.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-93244-100x100.png\")
This story would have been just fine on its own had Ben not added his 2 cents, but thank God he did. Priceless hilarity ensues. \"$18,000 \"George IV Desk.\" You can find George I desks just as good on eBay, the advances in the later models are mainly cosmetic.\" could go down as a classic.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-772833-100x100.png\")
c'mon guys, it's not like the money was wasted... oh, wait. it was.
\"6 wall sconces. Sconces are for nancies. Real titans of industry use torches.\"
This had me shaking and trying not to laugh out loud at work. List was hilarious! Thanks for that, Ben!
Having people to in and complain to a bank teller is absurd. The bank tellers aren't going to do anything about this. They want to keep their jobs and aren't going to complain up the chain and possibly risk their jobs expecially in the current economic enviornment.
Want to make a different, have people write into a specific major newspaper like the WSJ, or better yet, send out the addresses to the board of directors and have them get bombarded by email/letters. If people are willing to travel to a teller, they should be willing to email/write.
besides, doesn't it cost extra to talk to a teller nowdays?
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lol @ jerkface chairs
He should've gone to Target. Someone should do a side-by-side of how much he could've spent.
@shorty63136: Hell, he could have gone to Herman Miller, where the chairs are only $1-2k apiece.
@shorty63136:
I think in a situation like this it's more like the more he spends, the more awesome he is...so he'd just be laughing at the peasantry for only being able to spend a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what he blew on this project.
@shorty63136: I wouldn't go so far as to buy office furniture from Target -- that would be erring on the side of cheapness. Still, he could have spent much less, even if you don't count the $800K
@shorty63136: Well I don't think Micheal Smith is available at Target. So scratch 800,000 from the budget and we're looking at a pretty damn good reduction already.
My guess is it could have been done for $10,000 or less. But I've never had an office so what the heck do I know.