News-Record.com

Even Gordon Gekko might blink at the excess. Thain didn't -- at least not until last week.

Upon further reflection -- and after being skewered by every media outlet in the known universe -- he decided that maybe the investment was a teeny bit over the top. "I apologize for spending that money," he said, "and I will make it right. I will reimburse the company for all of those costs."

Merrill Lynch, by the way, lost $27 billion in 2008.

In light of those numbers, and the hefty bonuses Thain paid Merrill Lynch executives in spite of them -- Charlotte-based Bank of America curtly "asked" Thain to step down. But it's still left holding the bag.

BofA acquired Merrill Lynch in a federally brokered deal, and it received a massive federal bailout -- in part to help defray all the debt that came with the deal. That makes BofA the biggest financial services company in the world -- and links it forever, rightly or wrongly, with Thain's pricey indiscretions.

Critics are questioning the judgment of the bank's CEO, Kenneth Lewis, and its board of directors. Some wonder whether Lewis and members of the board need to step down.

Even so, Thain was sticking to his guns on $4 billion in bonuses he paid Merrill executives just before the BofA acquisition was consummated. "If you don't pay your best people," he said, "you will destroy your franchise."

He also said Bank of America was aware of the bonuses and had approved of them. "There was complete transparency and complete agreement with Bank of America," he said.

A Bank of America spokesman was, in response, predictably terse. "John Thain and the Merrill Lynch compensation committee made the decision on the amount and timing of year-end compensation at Merrill Lynch," Scott Silvestri told reporters. "We had no legal right to challenge it."

Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last week subpoenaed Thain on suspicions that the bonuses were not handled above board.

Now, maybe a man who has everything neither deserves nor needs the benefit of the doubt. But, for the sake of argument, let's give it to him anyway.

Associate Professor Bill Brown, who heads UNCG's Department of Accounting and Finance, says there is some credence to Thain's explanation of the lavish bonuses he paid.

First of all, Thain was stepping aboard a sinking ship the moment he joined Merrill Lynch, Brown says. "He wasn't there when all these mortgage-backed securities were purchased."

Further, Brown says, investment firms routinely pay large bonuses. "The way you get people to take risks is pay them a lot of money."

But Brown agrees that Thain and other Wall Street executives seem tone-deaf in relating to the masses and need to consider whose tax dollars are bailing them out the next time "they decide to decorate the office for a million dollars."

As for Charlotte, a city that has banked heavily on its financial industry for jobs, civic dollars and prestige, the Thain drama was a bad "Saturday Night Live" skit come to life.

The Queen City already has seen the demise of one its business titans in ousted Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson. Now this.

To his credit, Bank of America's Lewis has eschewed Thain's example and placed his own executives' bonuses on hold. When the bottom line improves, he has told them, the bonuses will return.

Maybe Lewis gets it. Maybe he understands that the extreme makeover his industry desperately needs involves its credibility, not its decor.

And a new outlook, not a new $35,000 commode.