You can't even make this crap up. Spongers.
Step aside and take solace, John Thain: The public flogging you just endured for spending $1.2 million to jazz up your now-vacant office at Merrill Lynch could subside once the sanctimonious mob moves on to other Wall Street titans who would dare redecorate their digs.Um, since when was capitalism about losing billions? Typicaly CNBC excuse making. Let these people make real profits and not profits that can't survive on the books for a couple of years. These people wouldn't know capitalism if it bit them in the ass. Despite what CNBC thinks, this is an indictment on capitalism. If this is the best it can offer it's no wonder people are against it. The sooner this type is run out of business the better. And that includes CNBC.
Next likely target: Citigroup. Though it is ailing mightily, Citi only recently began sprucing up an entire floor of offices for its senior-most executives at its headquarters in Manhattan, at 399 Park Avenue. That includes a new office for chief executive Vikram Pandit. If a disgruntled staffer leaks details of any new accoutrement and their price tags, the bank could come under new fire for its supposedly profligate ways.
Just down the street, J.P. Morgan Chase is close to completing a gut renovation of all 50 floors at its headquarters at 270 Park. Cost of the project, which began 18 months ago: A quarter of a billion dollars. Let any cushy details from that facelift surface, and JPM Chief Executive Jamie Dimon could have some ’splaining to do.
No doubt some other Wall Street giants have redone their offices, too. Let the witch hunt begin for the next CEO we can pillory for his fatcat ways.
The big problem with all this is it criminalizes capitalism. It plays right into the ill-conceived agenda of Wall Street’s harshest critics.
