If this week’s Wall Street meltdown and the general decline of the American economy have a villain, Portfolio.com may have fingered him: In an interactive story first posted in June, the site’s readers have overwhelmingly picked former Fed chief Alan Gree
The timing could have been better for the luxury car show at the World Financial Center in New York, home to Merrill Lynch & Co.
The Motorexpo opened on Monday — the morning after Merrill employees were shocked to hear their company was being bought by Bank of America, marking the end of the storied name in American finance.
Nikki Gold, a promoter for the Motorexpo, handing out brochures at the entrance to Merrill’s headquarters, said “A lot of people are in a really sour mood — the people you expect to take the brochures aren’t taking them.”
Those who did take the brochures joked about it, she said.
“They say things like: ‘Good luck with the Expo!’, ‘Don’t know if I can afford this now’, ‘We’ll see if we have a job tomorrow’” she said.
The Motorexpo features Aston Martins, Bentleys and Porsches — but the luxury cars weren’t getting much attention on Monday as Merrill employees were very much focused on other things.
From All Things Digital, Sept. 16, 2008:Of course, the layoffs at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) were expected, part of its cost-cutting integration after the $13.25 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems.HP said yesterday that the 24,600 jobs the tech gia
Unearthed in today’s exhaustive Merrill Lynch coverage: According to the company’s website, Charles Merrill and Edmund Lynch made their fortuitous acquaintance at Manhattan’s 23rd St YMCA in 1907.
Charles E Merrill & Co. opened its doors in January 1914, and the company changed its name to Merrill, Lynch & Co a year later.
The lyrics of the Village People’s anthem, written in 1978, apply just as well to the 22-year-olds Merrill and Lynch as they do today, especially for some of the bank’s employees who seem certain to lose their jobs as Bank of America acquires the firm:
Young man, there’s no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, ’cause you’re in a new town
There’s no need to be unhappy.Young man, there’s a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you’re short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I’m sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.
The Merrill Lynch website also quotes an associate assessing the partners’ complementary strengths: “Merrill could imagine the possibilities; Lynch imagined what might go wrong in a malevolent world.”
The last few years — for the firm and most of Wall Street — could thus be summarized as too much Merrill, not enough Lynch.