I think it includes retention bonuses.

Hopefully it includes all recipients. Yes, that does include the advisors whom still declares that Mother Merrill still exists. Wake up, your firm was going under and unfortunately it is now taking BAC down for the count. Lewis was an idiot for agreeing to accept your toxic environment and assets. The Merrill advisors should be required to forfeit their retention “bonuses” since all they did to earn these monies was to follow the “Merrill Brick Road”. If you feel that these bonuses are justified then you should have no problem in telling your clients that you have received $$$$ even though the Merrill platform has greatly devalued their assets.

You know, the larger picture here is what I find very disturbing, and Merrill is just a large, highly visible poster child.



How much of the “wealth” that was created over the last 20 years or so was built upon (I’ll hit this one softly) a misunderstanding of rules and economic principles? Was Greenspan right when he called Dow 6000 “irrational exuberance”? And where were the overseers of the juggernaut? Many of them are still sitting in Congress, demanding explanations for what went wrong.

Poster child my you know what. I agree that the gov’t and Greenspan assisted in this catastrophe. What they did was open the door for unethical firms to take advantage of no oversight. Merrill was more than happy to step through the door for instant gratification at the expense of their retail clients. The retail clients were considered the lowest rung of the ladder when derivitive fees flourished. Now they are trying to convince these same clients that they are special even though their actions have cost the clients dearly.

Exactly my point, Apollo.



It seems that no one is at fault, even though crimes were committed while the folks charged with policing this mess were off having donuts. And how much of the vast ‘wealth creation’ of the past two decades does not, in fact, exist?



I read somewhere that some of the mortgages that were bundled had been leveraged as much as 35 times!!!



Bernie Madoff is a piker in comparison.

The doughnuts were paid for by the large IB firms (i.e. Lehman, Bear, Merrill). The Madoff scheme is considered a federal crime via fraud. While the Merrill/Lehman/Bear schemes are considered an unintelligent mistake. I just wish that that the gov’t had the you know what to pursue these firms for fraud.

The doughnuts were paid for by the large IB firms (i.e. Lehman, Bear, Merrill). The Madoff scheme is considered a federal crime via fraud. While the Merrill/Lehman/Bear schemes are considered an unintelligent mistake. I just wish that that the gov’t had the you know what to pursue these firms for fraud.