Nov 9

Written by: Russ Henke
11/9/2008 9:01 AM 

Further to the blog entries in this space of November 6, 2008, named, “Latest Fuld News…”, and on November 4, 2008, entitled, “On Executive Pay & the Bailout”, and of September 18, 2008, called, “Poster Child”, the following article appeared in the New York Times on November 9, 2008:

    “How the Thundering Herd Faltered and Fell”

This article by Gretchen Morgenson is compelling reading about how Merrill Lynch finally imploded in the unregulated financial environment of the last 8 eight years.

But one telling factoid emerged that just has to be explicitly added to our blog entry list of “poster children” executives who were handsomely rewarded after driving their companies to the brink of financial ruin:

    In October 2007 Merrill’s board ousted Mr. E. Stanley O’Neal. On top of the $70 million in compensation he was   
    awarded during his four-year tenure as chief executive of Merrill Lynch, Mr. O’Neal departed with an exit package
    worth $161 million.

Recall that Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America just before Merrill Lynch imploded in September 2008.

Once blog readers recover from the shock of Mr. O’Neal’s compensation & severance award, check out the whole article at:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/business/09magic.html?ref=business