A Day at the Office

[G_j]

http://consumerist.com/5137115/merrill-lynch-ceo-spent-1220000-on-office-renovation-as-company-prepared-to-burn


Merrill Lynch CEO Spent $1,220,000 On Office Renovation As Company Prepared To Burn
By Ben Popken, 12:29 PM on Thu Jan 22 2009, 16,030 views

Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spent over $1.22 million to renovate his office in early 2008, just as his firm was getting ready to slash thousands of jobs, cut back on spending and dump businesses. Here's this douchebag's big-ticket tally of personal aggrandizement in the midst of financial crisis:

$800,00 to hire celebrity designer Michael Smith. He's interior-decorating Obama's White House. For $100,000, and mixing in items from Target.
$87,000 for a fucking area rug. I think I could buy all of the area rugs in stock at my local IKEA for $87,000, and have enough money left over to buy all my fellow shoppers an all-you-can eat Swedish Meatball feast. Then invest the remainder in high-yield moon-backed derivatives.
$87,000 two guest jerkface chairs
$44,000 another goddamn area rug
$37,000 six chairs for private dining room. Who has a dining room in their office?
$35,000 "commode on legs." I'm guessing that's a claw-footed toilet. Bad choice. Those gather dust underneath like nobodies business, let me tell you.
$28,00 four stupid curtains

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http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/01/a_day_at_the_office.html



A Day at the Office

A DAY AT THE OFFICE....When I read that Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain had spent $1.2 million redecorating his office, my first thought wasn't, "What a moron." (That was second.) It was, "How can you spend that much on one room? Solid gold wall sconces? Ashtrays made from moon rocks? What?" Luckily for me, Charlie Gasparino has the answer:

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 of curtains for $28,000; a pair of guest chairs for $87,000; a "George IV Desk" for $18,000; six 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 fabric for wall panels," for $5,000 and a "parchment waste can" for $1,400.

Impressive! But it doesn't add up to $1.2 million. It adds up to $1.3 million just for these 19 items alone, and there were probably plenty of smaller ticket nicknacks too. Plus labor — unless that's included in Smith's fee. Probably not, I suppose, which means this monument to American capitalism must have run at least a couple million bucks. The Sun King would have been proud.
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[muntrv]

1. Here's my post about that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4892008&mesg_id=4892008

[Octafish]

2. In China, they know how to deal with crooked executives.

As one who opposes capital punishment,
I'd recommend life imprisonment, without parole.
That way, the pain lasts longer.