$4 Billion Bonuses for Tycoon Business Failures -- Why? 
"Merrill paid the bonuses even as its acquirer, Bank of America, was seeking an additional $20 billion under the government's troubled asset relief program to consummate its purchase of the investment bank."
"Merrill paid the bonuses even as its acquirer, Bank of America, was seeking an additional $20 billion under the government's troubled asset relief program to consummate its purchase of the investment bank."
Ken Lewis, Bank of America's Chief Executive Officer, reported in the article that:
"Bank of America has said it was only the second week of December after the shareholder vote, that Merrill's losses ballooned beyond expected levels. Mr. Thain said on Monday, that B of A's managers had been on site from September and received daily reports on Merrill's financial condition."
But one thing stands out that is undisputable. John Thain and his Merrill crew were colossal failures and they knew it better than anyone else. They grabbed $4 billion in bonuses, with lightning speed, obviously not concerned with what happened to their stockholders as they grabbed the money and ran with it as fast as they could.
Old time thieves like John Dillinger, Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd or Baby Face Nelson had to risk their lives when they robbed banks. And if their weapons failed to produce the cash they fought so hard to acquire, there was no government bailout but jail cells or death. Now corruption replaces such crude methods of making money, with sophisticated, legal style operations.
With 37 million U.S. residents on food stamps, and the gap between the rich and poor widening, a 30-country study on poverty by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reveals the U.S. poverty rate.
The U.S. stands just above Mexico and Turkey with 17 percent of the population poor and climbing daily.
Yesterday 75,000 U.S. citizens lost their jobs. IBM cut around 9,000 jobs in the U.S., but in India IBM has 75,000 employees. What a twist of fate! The U.S. loses 75,000 jobs in one day -- and one major U.S. corporation in India -- IBM -- has 75,000 employees.
Maybe U.S. college students should become skilled in the Indian language. Of course they should learn Spanish as so many factories have moved to Mexico. The World Trade Agreement put U.S. labor in the shade. Thank Congress and big business!
With cheap labor and no health care, environmental or safety precautions for workers stock prices can zoom. How sweet it is!
But our congressional representatives who put this over on the gullible U.S. public need not fear for not having a job -- they can go to work as one of the more than 35,000 lobbyists chasing around Washington with hands full of money.
Now they will be giving, not receiving. Doesn't the good book say it is more blessed to give than receive?
Only in America!
KEYWORDS: Corporate Corruption, Washington Lobbyists, Huge Corporate Bonuses
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