Professor Elam

Monday Dec 7, 2009

Pearl Harbor Anniversary Day

Sorry I just couldn't resist the double meaning!  Merrill officials got Bank of America to agree to all the Merrill Bull symbol back on their business cards. It has been used since 1974. One recalls that 1974 as the bottom of the bear in terms of absolute Dow at 577 in Dec of 1974. It would not recover until after 1982 however. 

This is the same Merrill that had to sell it self to BoA last year to stay afloat. This is the same deal that CEO Ken Lewis said he was forced into by the FED, his reward, getting fired later at B of A. This is the same Merrill that had John Thain as President who spent $1 M re doing his bath room. This is the same John Thain that decided he deserved a $10 M bonus for selling Merrill to B of A a couple of hours before Lehman went bust. I have to admit he is probably right about that, the deal would not have happened once Lehman made it plain what a house of cards the brokers had become. This is the same Merrill that had Thain fired as it was discovered he lavished bonuses just before the deal went thru. 

And now they are bullish on America. Is this  great country or what?  This is why there are petitions to keep Bernake from being re appointed. The TARP money has been lavished on the banks to keep them in business after making every wrong decision they could make. U 6 unemployment is now 17%, one in six Americans does not have a job. But John Thain left Merrill with millions in the bank……the job of hte FED is to preserve the banks and this they have done. 

Socionomic Irony Now that the Dow has rallied 4,000+ points, Merrill is making a big deal about the bull on the business card. The time to be bullish of course was at the maximum fear inflection point, March 10. If you check no one was handing out bullish business cards at Merrill that day but that was the day to buy, a fact that did not escape Goldman who did just that with their TARP money. Correction, that would be OUR TARP money that Goldman used to make bonuses for them so they could then repay us our loan and keep their gains, okay got it now…..