The drama over John Thain and Ken Lewis, Merrill Lynch and BofA, and the government’s loan to Wall Street, gets juicier.<\/p>\n
Chapter One<\/strong>:\u00a0 Merrill hires Thain to salvage what he can of the troubled hulk.\u00a0 Thain sells off toxic loans to a hedge fund, and then the dolled up Merrill to BofA, for many billions, all just before the fan is hit by a stinking mound<\/a>.<\/p>\n Having just preserved a boatload of value for his shareholders, Thain wants to make sure his team is rewarded for it.\u00a0 He knows that BofA’s management won’t be sympathetic to getting taken for a ride once they figure it out, and would probably stiff the Merrill team when given the chance, so he pays out bonuses to his guys in advance of the sale.<\/p>\n Chapter Two<\/strong>:\u00a0 BofA’s stiffs Thain.\u00a0 Then they fire him, and unleash a barrage of bad press about him.\u00a0 The media laps it up.<\/p>\n Chapter Three<\/strong>:\u00a0 Enter Andrew Cuomo.\u00a0 Never content to leave criticism<\/a> of high profile executive compensation to others, Andy subpoenas Thain<\/a> over the Merrill bonuses.\u00a0 Ahh, the mystery deepens.\u00a0 What is Cuomo alleging?\u00a0 Under what law is he acting?\u00a0 What public interest is he seeking to protect?\u00a0 (Silence.)\u00a0 Oh yeah.\u00a0 Nevermind.<\/p>\n So, while New York state waddles toward its own spectacular bankruptcy due to the epic profligacy<\/a> and rampant corruption<\/a> of its legislators, Andy is chasing headlines about the pay of certain executives of a then-completely-non-state-owned company who had just pushed their grateful shareholders out of the way of a hollow-point bullet.<\/p>\n