Merrill Lynch's CEO seeking $10 million bonus

The "Compensation Committee" will compromise and offer him 9 million then keep $100,000 each for themselves and they will all laugh all the way to the bank.

Just watch.

If they give the @ss the money, we should boycott BofA and ML.  I am not going to be doing  business with any of them.

That gives MY MONEY to these bloated pigs.

How many jobs could have been saved with $10 million? Roughly 200 jobs in my opinion (35k a year plus training and benefits).

This guy is such a tool!

My thing with this is..Bank of America got 25 billion or so of the bailout to the  banks and other financial companys......why would ANY CEO of any company get a bonus...no CEO or exective should be getting a bonus if they received any tax payer money.....if their committee gives this guy a bonus of any kind, they need to go too.

This should include our representatives too, they surely have not done their jobs, its time for them to get a cut in pay also . They sure don't mind telling everyone else they are making too much

Giving him the compensation is easy.  All they have to do is find 10 million people who are willing to give him $1.

I thought bonusus were given as a reward for good, successful, profitable work? Did their business not fail?

JUST ANOTHER REASON WHY THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT BE PUTTING MONEY INTO BUSINESSES!  We will be crying the same tears when the big three go under after we have given them a bunch of money.  No one would be so personally invested in this if it wasn't our tax money in there!  No more bailouts, then we as individual consumers choose what we do with our own money.  If you want to invest in a company that supports these big CEO bonuses, it is your right.  NO MORE BAILOUTS!!!

He wants a bonus for him running his Co. into the ground? He is running the Co. He is responsible for it being in trouble. And he wants a bonus for that? I didn't save enough money when I was raising my Kids as a single Mom, with no help from their Dad, by the way, could someone send me a couple of million $ to supplement my SS? Give me a break!!!!!

If they give this greedy SOB a 10M or even 1M bonus, I am switching from ML and BA to my mattress!! this guy should be tossed in the street.... how much are the taxpayers supposed to pay these greedy, incompetents??

Weaning these greedheads off their milk and honey pacifier provided by taxpayers they could care less about is a difficult thing. The poor guy might go into appoplexy if he can't have his new private jet this year. And, let's not forget that wifie dearest can't do without her annual Hope diamond sized dinner ring so when she eats her foi gras and drinks her Remy Martin from her Swarovski flute, she won't look like Second Hand Rose.

Greedheads never do recognize greed. It's part of their DNA.

The Senators are suggesting the CEO of GM to step down.  It is time to DEMAND all of these financial CEO's be fired in exchange for not taking them to jail.  Do not pass Go and Do not collect any bonuses!

Bank of America needs to go or be taken over by the government.  They rip off their account holders by putting 'holds' on their deposits (to use the money for a while) keeping the person from withdrawing that money.  They dictate how the people will be allowed to use their own money.  Apparently, BofA isn't lending any of the money.

Blah, blah, blah. Fire his useless ass with no bonus and no severance pay.

A hobo off the streets could run a company into the ground just as well for little or no pay.

I agree, fire the worthless Greedy S.O.B. with no compensation, I am sure he still have plenty of millions hide away.  There are NO C.E.O.s that deserve that kind of money.

This shows how out of touch these big shots are. In my world I would have been fired for such incompetence but this arrogant a** is sure that he is entitled.

Give him ten years instead!

The nerve ! You are fired !

UNBELIEVEABLE NERVE!!!!!  I don't know about all of you, but I feel like I am getting the Royal Screw on a daily basis lately!   

I agree with giving him 10 years. It is a crime what has happened to with this country because of greed.

Any company giving out executive bonuses should automatically forfeit the gov't money. That should have been part of the package to begin with, that they only got the money IF no bonuses or perks were paid. These companies should go out of business like any other smaller company.  If they can't budget and stay profitable, we shouldn't be bailing them out.  The government isn't doing this for all the smaller businesses that go under every day.

I agree that if these companies give out bonuses, everyone that has an account there, should pull them and go do business elsewhere.

 are you kidding me??? when will this stop....maybe when the economy is completely in a depression. somebody needs to be policing these jack a---ss---es. they drain a company dry and the poor working man bails them out with money he'll never see again!!!!

I can barely stand to read this article it angers me so much!!!!!!  How about 10 million people pony up $1.00 each to have this guy ________.  (Use you imagination)

He didn't try hard enough. LOL

All I can say is Unbelievable! At my company I would have been fired a long time ago.

The word anger does no justice to how this makes me feel, but I felt I had to write something as I read the posts below.

I feel like we're all on one team and monsters like this CEO are on the other.

We truly live in two different worlds.  People like this CEO believe all should suffer except for him and his loved ones.  I'm sure he's been responsible for thousands of people losing their jobs, but he feels he's above that and should be given millions for his failure.

I can only hope he will get what he truly deserves some day.  I guess we're too dumb to have jobs where we can be overpaid by millions, do a horrible job and expect even more pay!  I'm depressed!!!!!!

What an IDIOT! This guy needs to be FIRED?

Can we fire and jail Schumer, Pelosi, Reid, and the others Dems (In Congress and Out) that ran Fannie and Freddie into the ground while pulling an Enrons and making millions as well?  Can we fire and jail all the Dems for passing regulations that these banks had to follow to give bad loans to people to buy houses that could not afford them or the payback of the loans?

I am all for firing an idiot greedy CEO's.. I just want you to be fair since the Libs have turned this into such an anti-business atmosphere and only trust us.. the democrat governement..so can we fire and jail them as well?  (Oh and Obama had his hands in Fannie...so does that mean we get to fire and jail him too?)  Just trying to stay balanced...

Chief Executive John Thain should be fired and receive no bonus. This should become the new policy for all companies that are run so poorly (receive no bonus, no stock options, etc).   

toastee Stop being so biases. Its not just the libs that caused these problems. Stupid people you make the world a bad place to live.

toastee: Once again, the CRA did not require banks to give money to people that were not qualified. It required lenders to not turn down a QUALIFIED borrower because of race. The CRA does not nor has it ever apply to private mortgage companies. The only thing holding a gun to the private mortgage companies was greed. They gathered as many signers as they could, good or bad risk, then bundled up the mortgages and sold them.

Many of the things you mention happened on Republican watch, with a Republican controlled house, senate and executive branch. Denial doesn't change facts, and you can't rewrite history, no matter how hard you try.

Get over it. Obama will be the next president. Now can we move on to something else for a while?

Hit the ignore button on that person they only post superfluous bs anyway not worth reading. Uts the right wing Blame Pelosi Ried and the libs line over and over like someone is going to believe that they are the cause of this guy asking for 10 million.

If this guy deserves a bonus so doe GW and that is out there.

Maybe without him and his management team THINGS WOULD HAVE TURNED OUT BETTER. He's got a lot of guts to ask for ANY bonus.

Learn to live within your means....'new' means!

First they need to fire this arrogant CEO who has not earned anything.

Next we the people need to stop doing business with these compaines and make our voice strong and heard.

When that 10 million can be put into investments and then used to finance healthcare for a community?  It is that this man has no more value to anyone than a piece of dirt on the floor.  He has less value than a teacher that forms the educational abilities and knowledge base of our children, less value than a waitress that works on her feet all day to pay the rent, less value than a soldier out on a field putting his life out there for his country and I could go on on and on.  Pay this executive for his 'value' which is 0.00, then sweep him out the door. 

It actually could have been worse.  I know the Hate-o-rade is mighty tasty, but perhaps we should consider the fact that Thain didn't create the mess at Merrill, he was brought in to clean it up.  The primary culprit in this debacle is Thain's predecessor Stanley O'Neal, who was taking the company plane to play golf on Martha's Vineyard while it was imploding.  O'Neal "retired" with a package totalling $160 million. Ironically, the board that is struggling with whether to pay the Thain bonus is the very same bunch who gave O'Neal that huge package.  They share responsibility for helping bring the American financial system to its knees. 

Thanks for the information.  I did not know this.  O'Neal and the generous board need to face retribution for the pitiful mess they created.  How can such packages be justified?  Where is the regulation of this?  What makes O'Neal or any other CEO worth that much money?  Knowledge is knowledge, but unless it is coupled with integrity and talent it means nothing.   If one gets 160 million to destroy a company, what does one get to build it into a strong ethical entity of conscience and productivity?  

Landspirit:  Right On!  As soon as I saw this headline it made me think of this