After a day of foreign policy, attention returns to the economy on Friday.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will meet with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders to talk about the economy. They will also hold a budget meeting and Obama will meet with Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Giethner who won backing from the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.
One of Obama’s concerns has been to make sure CEO pay stays in check. A big item in the news today is that former chief executive of Merrill Lynch John Thain — once a darling of Wall Street for selling Merrill to Bank of America — was ousted from the bank, which has been promised a $20 billion captial injection from the government.
Many of the morning television shows focused on Thain’s rampant spending decorating his office. News organizations are calling “corporate pig out” for spending more than one million dollars on redecorating. One example: an $87,000 rug. He also speeded up the payment of bonuses to Merrill executives just before the merger closed with Bank of America.
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- Photo credit: Reuters/Punit Paranjpe (Thain at news conference in Mumbai in May)
