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January 25, 2007
Don't Do Business With Merrill Lynch
In a week in which the NFL is celebrating the first time two African-American head coaches will meet in the upcoming Super Bowl, Merrill Lynch announced that its African-American CEO, Stanley O'Neal, earned a whopping $48 million last year.
I'm delighted that Tony Dungee and his good pal Lovie Smith will meet in the Super Bowl and that the New York Giants picked an African-American as its General Manager--high time that blacks got their place in the firmament of the NFL. But it’s also high time that consumers begin to revolt against the outrageously high pay packages of CEOs and other corporate executives.
Merrill Lynch’s O’Neal was only the second-highest paid Wall Street executive. Goldman-Sachs Group’s CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, took home $54 million last year. However, there is little the average consumer can do to revolt against obscene investment banking pay packages because we are not involved in advising corporate mergers and buyouts or in bond trading. But we can throw our weight around if we do business with a company that has a consumer component, such as Merrill-Lynch’s stockbrokerage unit.
Therefore, if you do business with Merrill-Lynch, protest by cancelling your account and let them know that you’re doing so because of the unconscionable high pay of its top executives. Stanley O’Neal made $48 million, EVP Dow Kim (ironic name) made $37 million, EVP Greg Fleming made $34 million, EVP Ahmass Fakahany made $30 million, and EVP Robert McCann made $23 million, according to the Thursday, January 25, Wall Street Journal. That’s $172 million to five men. I don’t care if it is a diverse group racially and ethnically, it’s too much money.
In the same issue of the Wall Street Journal there was an article that Home Depot’s new CEO, Frank Blake, “rejected the big retailer’s first offer as too rich” and took a compensation package that was about one-third as rich as that of his predecessor, Robert Nardelli. In a statement, Blake said that he “wanted to be totally aligned with shareholders” and took a pay package that was directly related to performance. What a switch.
So, do business with Home Depot to reward Frank Blake for his realism and don’t do business with Merrill Lynch to punish it for giving Stanley O’Neal and his top lieutenants an obscene amount of money.
Posted by Charles Warner at January 25, 2007 10:45 AM
Comments
Media Curmudgeon 
at January 26, 2007 5:18 PM writes:
Paul Talbot, who is an avid Red Sox fan, sent the following comment, knowing that I was an avid Yankee fan.
"The corollary to Warner's Law...
Don't go see the New York Yankees.
Their 2006 payroll was $198 million.
Go see one of the five MLB teams whose entire 2006 team payroll was less than what Stanley O'Neal took home."
Paul is now on up on me.
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