All About Children...

I was explaining to someone the other day that most of the Wall St. CEO's are simply acting like children. I have two toddlers so I know the typical actions of a child first hand. The one that comes to mind is when my kids are fighting over a toy and they are saying "MINE!". That is exactly what we are seeing with CEO's across the financial world. They are all saying "MINE!" when it comes to salaries and perks and stock, etc. Now is the time for leadership. Not child play.

Among the most evil of all these people is John Thain from Merril Lynch. I am not going to go into all the things he used Merril money for his office, but suffice it to say they would make you want to throw up. I understand having a fund manager there and your job is to make them buy some stock. But if I am a truly savvy fund manager, what am I supposed to think if the CEO is wasting shareholder money this way? The most aggregious part of this particular theft is that is was all done while Merril was losing BILLIONS. This was not just an error in judgement. This was theft.

The other part of Thain that will make you want to throw up is that he wanted a $10 million bonus this year!? Is he serious? The official press release said that he told the board that he didn't actually want the bonus. Of course that was a lie.

What makes the bonus discussion more disgusting is that there is new information coming out today. The information from the Wall St Journal is that Bank of America was essentially forced to buy Merril. The sale of the company was what Thain was basing his "I deserve a bonus" discussion on. He did nothing! The government twisted their arm! Disgusting.

One other quick piece of info. Goldman Sachs just raised their price target on Gold today. What does this mean? It means that Goldman is not in the Gold market big time. Do not pretend Goldman is an objective player. They do this all the time. They were doing with oil prior to the bubble bursting. They were in the market buying oil hand over fist then they were raising the price target. Goldman was essentially silent as they sold huge portions of their oil holdings in July. The market collapsed. Then they downgraded their price target. Guess what is happening now with Gold. I recommended it about $150 ago and there is still time. You missed a small move so far. I think it goes much higher. Get in and buckle up. Until next time, stay low risk..