Banking, finance, and taxes

Cramer Attacks John Thain of Merrill Lynch (MER, NYX)

Thain_image_2Cramer_picOn CNBC’s MAD MONEY tonight, Jim Cramer came out and added the Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) CEOJohn Thain to his "Wall of Shame" full of CEO’s that he wants to see go away. 

He noted that the problems of Thain go all the way back to when Thain was CEO of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: NYX) for lying to him then about making up market share losses to NASDAQ.

Tonight Cramer called Thain’s Merrill Lynch tenure as essentially oneof misleading information.  This is based upon saying that the firmdidn’t need dilution, wouldn’t do any dilutive financing, was hedgedagainst much risk, had CDO exposure under control, and more.

Last night we echoed some of the same after noting the Merrill Lynchcall of "We need no cash! We need cash!" after this $8.5 Billion 20%dilution financing. 

We used to dislike much of Thain’s policiesourselves, except that it was more around his policies of keeping theexchanges open a full day rather than a half-day in front of holidays(despite thinking he’s a belt and suspenders guy).

Here was our own list of CEO’s that need to go for 2008 from earlier this year showing how many have gotten the boot.

Jon C. Ogg
July 29, 2008

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