Dick Fuld,

Lehman Brothers

Presided over the largest (so far) bankruptcy in U.S. history, $613 billion in outstanding debt; and did it in true banking style: no remorse, no admission of culpability; earned $22 million the year firm went bust; tried to avoid lawsuits by selling his $13 million Florida home to his wife for $100.

Angelo Mozilo,

Mr. Subprime, a butcher’s son who built the largest mortgage lender in the country, and then destroyed it. When a nervous homeowner sent a letter begging for help, Mozilo wrote a scathing reply, calling the man disgusting; then Mozilo “accidentally” sent the email to the Los Angeles Times. Mozilo’s “Friends of Angelo” program provided loans on favorable terms to politically influential and/or celebrity borrowers, including Senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd. Hate him if you will, but you must admit, the tan looks Marvelous!

Jimmy Cayne,

Cayne was playing bridge (and allegedly smoking marijuana) when two Bear Stearns hedge funds collapsed in July 2007. Cayne was playing bridge (and allegedly smoking marijuana) when Bear Stearns collapsed in March 2008 leading to the emergency sale to JP Morgan. If the apocalypse comes, one sure sign will be Cayne playing bridge and allegedly smoking marijuana.

Alan Schwartz,

The last CEO of Bear Stearns. Went on CNBC and when asked, "Bear Stearns' balance sheet, liquidity, and capital remain h5...” He answered, “Our liquidity position has not changed at all, our balance sheet has not changed at all..."Two days later, Bear Stearns effectively went bankrupt.

Martin Sullivan,

This is the guy who approved those “retention” bonuses that AIG tried to pay out of the bailout money. Sullivan was ousted before the bailout; he once considered AIG’s exposure to subprime as manageable; he managed to walk away with a $25 million severance package

Joe Cassano,

In August 2007 Joey Casino told investors his Credit Default Swap deals could not lose even "$1"; lost $352 million that quarter, but not really, because Joey walked out with $280 million in earnings. (or was that a “retention” bonus?)

Stan O’Neal,

Stan was a gambling man; he bet on subprime, he bet on cost cutting, he bet on derivatives, he bet he could acquire Wachovia without approval from Merrill’s board of directors. Stan was not a good gambler; Merrill posted the biggest quarterly loss in its history; he was fired, but Lady Luck saw him walk away with $161 million in severance.

Vikram Pandit,

Pandit was brought in to oversee the dismantling of Citi, which has been (ssshhh, whisper the word…nationalized). Pandit’s currently earning $1 a year, but his pay package was valued at $38 million for 2008, a year when taxpayers kept the firm in business.

Sandy Weill,

Before Vikram came in to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, Sandy created the first too-big-to-fail company, Citigroup. Led the boom in subprime mortgages. Sandy celebrated $45 billion taxpayer bailout of Citi by taking Mexican vacation on Citigroup jet.

Alan Greenspan,

Mr. Bubble’s resume includes some of the greatest economic calamities of the past quarter century: the stock market crash of 87, the S&L crisis, the collapse of LTCM, the tech bubble, Y2K panic mongering, the real estate bubble, the credit bubble. The turbulence caused by the former Fed Head will impact us for many years to come.

Phil Gramm,

Pushed repeal of Glass-Steagall Act, leading to rise of megabanks. Wrote law that exempted Credit Default Swaps from all regulation. Denies his deregulation had any part in creating crash, and it’s not really a crash, it’s just a "mental recession", so stop whining.

Robert Rubin,

Opposed regulation of credit swaps; fought to overturn Glass-Steagall Act, leading to creation of megabank, Citigroup, where he later made $115 million.

Christopher Cox,

Mr. Calm oversaw the "voluntary regulation" of Wall Street and the ratings agencies. Taking a page from Nero’s playbook he now claims his "greatest contribution" during the inevitable crisis was staying "calm."

John Thain,

May have concealed $15 billion in losses until government subsidized the sale of Merrill. Proposed a $10 million bonus for himself as Merrill imploded. May have taken the corporate jet for a Colorado ski vacation to celebrate. May spend the rest of his life fighting class action lawsuits.

Henry Paulson,

Pushed for end to debt restrictions for banks like Goldman, then arranged big bailout for Goldman. Author of the three page, non-reviewable TARP proposal. Hank the Hammer also pushed through the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America despite objection to previously undisclosed losses. For BofA’s Ken Lewis, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse (considering his lack of a moral compass).

You can nominate someone to the Bank-O-Meter Hall of Shame. Comments welcome.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed