Things are really tough on Wall Street. Senior executives at Merrill Lynch will not be getting a bonus this year. The top three executives at Morgan Stanley can forget about their bonuses this year also. However, the 14-member operating committee will still get a bonus, but it will be cut by 75 percent. The president of a New York finance-recruiting firm said, “Clearly they’re trying to spread the pain out a little bit.”
Merrill Lynch CEO John A. Thain requested a $10 million bonus. He had saved the company from ruin by selling it to Bank of America. When New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo and others protested paying a bonus to Thain, he withdrew his request.
Former English professor Dr. Carl Perrin wants to share Wall Street’s pain. Instead of paying that $10 million to John A. Thain, why not give it to a deserving professor like Perrin. The professor would not even object to having the bonus cut by 75 percent. He would be satisfied with $2.5 million.
