Thank you Mr Thain

This week, focus on Mr Thain, the 4 billion dollars in bonuses he paid to Merrill Lynch staff just before the completion of the take over by BofA, the 1.2 million dollars he spent refurbishing his office, including a now famous and slightly offending $ 1,400 waste-paper bin. That is it. For months people tried to put a face on the financial crisis, so that they would have someone to blame. It had to be a banker. It had to be an American one. It had to be one obviously so arrogant that he would become detestable by every body. Mr Thain, congratulations. You have just been voted by the public opinion, the financial crisis scapegoat.

Enough.

• Enough of the people blaming the bankers for this crisis but who are also first in line to put pressure on the same bankers to get the highest possible returns on their capital. Usually without paying too much attention to the risks.
• Enough of all those blaming the big bonuses because they would like to have their share of the cake and don't. Hey, the more we are to eat on it, the smaller will the shares be. Back off !
  
• Enough of all those imbeciles who do not understand that when you make millions a year, the base price for a waste-paper bin is $1,400. End of story. Below that it would probably be made in China and would therefore not earn a living for a good American worker (by opposition to the Chinese worker who has to be bad). By the way, how much is Obama's bin worth, in the oval office ?
  
• Enough of all those criticizing these wealthy people, when the only thing they are aspiring too is to become on of them. And then, spend a million dollars or so in the refurbishment of their office, to show it off to their competitors. Just to show them who they are. The riches must have their own little pleasures too...in particular if they are funded out of other's money. Does anybody think that Ford's or GM's CEOs have offices decorated with Ikea kind of furnitures ?
  
• Enough of our western societies, stinking jealousy and greed where people are ready to do absolutely everything to satisfy their highest need: make money to buy stuffs, then show these stuffs off to those who cannot afford them and by doing so, claiming a higher step on the ladder of consumerist stupidity. All societies have their own hierarchy. This is ours.
  

In this society Mr Thain, you were right at the top. You could only go down. You just did. But you know Mr Thain, that silently, a lot of Merill Lynch employees, who are in the process of loosing their jobs in this merger, will thank you for this last bonus that may keep them afloat during the tough months ahead.

And unlike the dreamers who believe that a better and fair world will emerge out of this, you know that there will always be someone to take your seat, in your newly decorated office. Someone who will look the waste-paper basket everyday and secretly say: "Thank you Mr Thain...I quite like it".