Merill Lynch Exposed

I’ve been contemplating whether I should expose the lavish corporate party that Merrill Lynch held on October 3rd of this year, just 2 weeks after they were forced to sell out to Bank of America. So I have a 3 part blog this week, Merrill Lynch Exposed, Regulation, and The Direct Market Connection to Republian and Democratic Presidents, among the weekly updates.

The lavish corporate party was held at Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, Arizona. I was there, by coincidence. My beautiful fiancé and I had decided to do a “date night,” and I had wanted to see the resort that was on the outskirts of the town I lived in. I’ll let the news channels dig up the specifics on what the lavish party included but I wanted you to know who broke the story (if it breaks at all). Merrill Lynch didn’t go bankrupt, but they might as well have. Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia.org (my favorite information website).

Three days later, the company froze hiring and revealed that they had charged almost $30 billion in losses to their subsidiary in the United Kingdom, exempting them from taxes in that country.

Bloomberg reported in September 2008 that Merrill Lynch had lost $51.8 billion in mortgage-backed securities as part of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Mr. John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, by the way, to make a point, to highlight, “Based on a formula by the Associated Press, in 2007 Thain was the best-paid CEO among the S&P 500 companies, receiving $83.1 million,” (according to his page on Wikipedia.org). He killed that company, and most of shareholder value. Mr. Thain’s pay is 0.16% of the $51.8 billion in losses. Now that may not seem like a big percentage but when you think that his salary is 1/10th of almost 2% of the total losses for which he presided over, that makes me mad. Everyone hears about what Warren Buffet is saying and doing because he has a history of world-class level investing returns, so what about the bad ones? Well, Mr. John Thain is now a big whopper at Bank of America and he’s in charge of a few things. So, if I can give you any investment advice in this article it would be. . . DO NOT BUY BANK OF AMERICA STOCK.

It makes me mad as hell that Big Whoppers can drive age-old companies into bankruptcy but have no repercussions. This is why we need more regulation. Regulation protects the investor because obviously the boards do not. I think that the fact that John Thain works for ANYONE now is proof enough that the boards do not protect the investor. Regulation can come in a number of ways but most likely this time it will come in more transparency. The Bush theory on regulation is that there should be none, and that businesses should be trusted. I’m willing to say that theory didn’t work and that Joe The Plumber is paying the price. I’m going to say this, and I hope it’s true, Bush is the worst president of our lifetime. I hope it’s true because that means the worst is almost past us. So I didn’t have much to say about regulation but let’s just agree that there needs to be more. The segue from here is to show the historical market returns for Democratic and Republican presidents.

There’s no particular reason, but I’m choosing to start with the year 1953.

REPUBLICAN
1953-1961: DOW Industrial Average +101%
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President: Richard Nixon

DEMOCRAT
1961-1963: DOW Industrial Average +6.4%
President: John F. Kennedy
Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson

DEMOCRAT
1963-1969: DOW Industrial Average +44.2%
President: Lyndon B. Johnson
Vice President: Hebert Humphery

REPUBLICAN
1969-1974: DOW Industrial Average -10.1%
President: Richard Nixon
Vice President: Spiro Agnew

REPUBLICAN
1974-1977: DOW Industrial Average+19.8%
President: Gerald Ford
Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller

DEMOCRAT
1977-1981: DOW Industrial Average +0.0%
President: Jimmy Carter
Vice President: Walter Mondale

REPUBLICAN
1981-1989: DOW Industrial Average +129%
President: Ronald Regan
Vice President: George H.W. Bush

REPUBLICAN
1989-1993: DOW Industrial Average +46%
President: George H.W. Bush
Vice President: Dan Quale

DEMOCRAT
1993-2001: DOW Industrial Average +214%
President: Bill Clinton
Vice President: Al Gore

REPUBLICAN
2001-2009: DOW Industrial Average -21.6%
President: George W. Bush
Vice President: Dick Cheney

Tally:
REPUBLICANS: +264.1%
DEMOCRATS: +264.6%

My numbers are by no means scientific. My prediction is that after Obama’s 8 years in office, the Democrats will have a big lead on the Republicans. Stay strong and invest for the long term!!!

On the Political front:
My current Election Prediction ticker: Obama/Biden ticket by 16% - STILL (since my Oct. 1st call)
My prediction for the elections. . . “no more fear mongering.”

Disgraced Politician of the Week
This week’s honor goes to Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens. He’s the longest serving Republican in Alaskan government, the newest being Palin. Senator Stevens is famous for wanting to censor the internet, satellite radio, and premium TV channels. So what he’s saying is that he’s all for guns, but not for freedom of speech. His home renovations came from an oil field research company, of which he did not claim on his taxes. Also, “In September, The Hill reported that Stevens had "steered millions of federal dollars to a sportfishing industry group founded by Bob Penney, a longtime friend". In 1998, Stevens invested $15,000 in a Utah land deal managed by Penney; in 2004, Stevens sold his share of the property for $150,000.” Glad he got caught, he’s a scumbag, shithead.