Thain’s Spending Spree

posted by Nima

January 22, 2009 · Posted in Business

In case anyone wants to get an idea as to where all their TARP money is going:

According to documents reviewed by The Daily Beast, Thain spent $1.22 million of company money to refurbish his office at Merrill Lynch headquarters in lower Manhattan. The biggest piece of the spending spree: $800,000 to hire famed celebrity designer Michael Smith, who is currently redesigning the White House for the Obama family for just $100,000.

The other big ticket items Thain purchased include: $87,000 for an area rug in Thain’s conference room and another area rug for $44,000; a “mahogany pedestal table” for $25,000; a “19th Century Credenza” in Thain’s office for $68,000; a sofa for $15,000; four pairs curtains for $28,000; a pair of guest chairs for $87,000; a “George IV Desk” for $18,000; 6 wall sconces for $2,700; six chairs in his private dining room for $37,000; a mirror in his private dining room for $5,000; a chandelier in the private dining room for $13,000; fabric for a “Roman Shade” for $11,000; a “custom coffee table” for $16,000; something called a “commode on legs” for $35,000; a “Regency Chairs” for $24,000; “40 yards of farbric for wall panels,” for $5,000 and a “parchment waste can” for $1,400.

Hopefully people won’t act surprised about this inevitable outgrowth of bureaucratic interventionism. When you subsidize mismanagement and corruption, you’ll get more of it. So long as we keep throwing good money after bad, we will hear of more stories like this. Had the Enron debacle happened during this time, Kenneth Ley and his cronies would have been bailed out along with the rest of the pack and their failure, too, would have been imputed upon the mystical financial crisis.

Tags: merrill lynch, tarp, thain

Comments

2 Responses to “Thain’s Spending Spree”

Shauna Kaner on January 22nd, 2009 11:15 pm

LOL
Rick Cain on December 26th, 2009 2:01 am

Well we gotta let the market determine what Thain puts in his office, right?