It's always the little things. In last week's row over the huge losses at Merrill Lynch, we learned that $15 billion of your kids' dough was flushed down the toilet in the form of year-end bonuses for Merrill staff. And this in a year that Merrill saw cumulative losses of greater than $40 billion. Though there was plenty of outrage, the story that really caught people's attention that day was the Gasparino piece in The Daily Beast about John Thain's $1.2 million dollar office redecoration.
Hmm. We have $15 billion in ridiculous bonuses versus $1 million in walking toilets. It was a commode with legs after all. Advantage: commode.
Yesterday we learned that Citi was preparing to take delivery on a luxury 12-seater that they ordered in 2006. The cost, $50 million. Meanwhile Citi has stolen $45 billion from your kids already (plus a $300 billion asset guarantee), all in the past 14 weeks. Advantage: luxury 12-seater.
It's not that surprising, really. Some outrages resonate more than others. So today, in the first symbolic win for the taxpayers since the auto execs were forced to hitch a ride to Washington, Citi announced that it will not take delivery of the new plane.
And you know what, we'll take it. Though mostly symbolic, a win is a win, and we sure as hell needed one. So come on inside where the taxpayer takes a victory lap as we examine how it all went down.
We have 4 unique takes on the story, each a great read. Plus, today was Citi's annual Investor Day and we've got the transcript of all the lies Pandit was telling.
the WSJ with the complete citi analyst day transcript
Citigroup Continues to Bungle PR on Jet Purchase nymag.com
andrew sorkin on citi's blunder dealbook NYTimes
wall street's socialist jet-setters opinion NYTimes