Merrill Lynch: Infamia!

Apologies for the lapse into Italian, but it is a remnant of my childhood. My father had a remarkable talent for expressing strong emotion in this language as in no other way.

Until serious reforms are made in the banking system, and the accounts are squared with those who brought us to this misfortune, there can be no recovery, and no sustained return to individual liberty.

So, what would we like to do about this latest outrage?


Merrill Execs Pay Selves Bonuses Ahead of Schedule (and
Before BofA Closing)
Naked Capitalism

Playing fast and loose seems to be the theme of the evening... now we have the eleventh hour stealing of the silver by Merrill's top executives as one of the firm's final acts.

Let us remember the fact set: Merrill managed to get Bank of America to agree to buy it in September, elbowing aside Lehman. The deal is subject to shareholder approval, however. BofA, realizing it has acquired a garbage barge, threatens to scuttle the deal unless Uncle Sam lends a helping hand. Negotiations proceed behind closed doors (and neither Merrill nor BofA shareholders are told prior to the shareholder vote that BofA has agreed to do the deal subject to some form of government support).

Now we learn that after it was evident that the US taxpayer was going to subsidize the Merrill acquisition, the Merrill compensation committee accelerated bonus payments by a month to make sure they were paid out before the BofA deal closed.

Efforts are being made to minimize the amount involved (it is claimed to be only $3-$4 billion, but the fact is amounts were reserved in prior quarters that are excessive in light of full year performance. So the fact that some of the amounts were allowed for in previous quarters is misleading).

Were Merrill bankrupt, the bonus payments could be deemed fraudulent conveyance and clawed back. But we don't do either financial firm bankruptcies or clawbacks in this country...