[Marxism] WSWS: The rise and fall of Wall Streetʼs John Thain

[Jerry Wells <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI:
Here is information on what happened to Bank of America, Merrill Lynch
and John Thain from WSWS.

The rise and fall of Wall Streetâs John Thain
A dirty, but revealing affair
By Tom Eley 
24 January 2009

Link to full article here:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/thai-j24.shtml

"John Thain, the CEO of brokerage house Merrill Lynch, who guided his
firm's absorption by Bank of America, was fired yesterday by BOA head
Ken Lewis after it was learned that Merrill had brought $15.31 billion
in fourth quarter losses onto the bank's balance sheet. Bank of America
stock has lost 83 percent of its value since the Merrill acquisition was
announced on September 21, and analysts believe that the banking giant
is, for all intents and purposes, insolvent."
...
Thain was widely celebrated for shepherding Merrill's sale to BOA. But
the honeymoon did not last long when it became known that Thain had
"failed to tell the bank about mounting losses at Merrill late last
year," according to Marketwatch. Merrill's exposure to toxic debt has
thrown into doubt BOA's own survival. It is widely assumed that Lewis
sacrificed Thain in order to mollify stockholder angerâand save his own
position, at least for the moment.
...
The financial aristocracy's unquenchable mania for personal enrichment,
that Thain so thoroughly embodies, is not the source of the collapse of
capitalism. Nonetheless, this socially destructive and parasitic quality
is characteristic of historically doomed ruling classes. America's
wealthy seem organically incapable of restraining themselves from
committing outright larceny. They behave as though, on some level, they
do not anticipate being around for very long."



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