Stan O'Neal Is Retired, As of Like.....Now.

So it finally is finished. But what a weird way to go. Merrill Lynch announced that Stan O'Neal was not being fired, or that he was simply stepping down. No, Stan O'Neal retired...immediately. Like he is sooo retired. Do you think they threw him a retirement party? Do you think they got him a cake at least?

I think the $160 million will help ease those wounds. But I bet it still smarts that he didn't get any "over the hill" kind of jokes that come with retirement.

But lets get one thing straight...he is going to get $160 million for pissing off his company in general, making bad bets on sub-prime loans, and post a quarterly loss of $8 billion and he still has the rights to that money. I think I could handle a job like that.

$160 million for screwing up so royally that everyone from top to bottom is cheering you out the door. Where can I get a job like that? I have no problem with people not liking me for stupid decisions that I make and get paid handsomely for it.

And now the company has had a class action suit file against them for not being transparent enough with their bets on the sub-prime market. And poor Merrill Lynch is holding the bag while Stan is out there enjoying his immediate retirement.

Now certainly, Stan O'Neal was not the person making all the decisions in the sub-prime arena. But the buck does stop at the CEO. If he isn't aware or approving of what is happening, he shouldn't have been CEO to begin with. Be certain, that he is not the only one whose head is going to roll. How many other immediate retirements are coming out of Merrill.

What a mess.

Merrill's Bad Surprise, Countrywide, & A Sell

I know that I'm not alone on this, but I swear that Merrill Lynch had said just a couple of weeks ago that their write down would be about $4.5 billion. Then when they announced in their earnings report that they wrote down $7.9 billion instead.

What the, huh? Now this is just wild to me. How could they be that far off in their initial guidance? CEO Stan O'Neal said,

"As of the date we preannounced, the amount we were indicating was within the range of evaluations and as we looked at it and went back and examined it in the context of why -- where the markets are, we believe it's appropriate to be at the conservative end of the range," O'Neal said."

Well, that is great. But why not be conservative before now? A write down is just devaluing your own assets. No money has changed hands. Merrill just doesn't think their assets are valued as much as they used to.

This just goes to show that Merrill didn't hedge it's risks nearly as well as the other big investment banks. It also makes me think that the much bally-hooed bank bailout fund might not be as imminent as commonly thought.

If the bailout fund was a go, Merrill would not have written down this much. They would have had another outlet for their "bad" assets. Not good.

Countrywide, the downtrodden and beaten mortgage lender continues it's slide. Today the stock fell another 8%. If closed today under $14. The company reports their earnings (or the lack thereof) on Friday. If the company misses, which I have a sneaky feeling it will, look for the stock to around the $12 mark.

And it is getting to be that time of the year...I might be a little early but it's time to sell off your losers and hangers-on for tax purposes. My eyes are set on Quest Diagnostics (DXG). The company reported less than stellar earnings. It has gone nowhere overall and down over 4.5% today. I am selling the stock at a loss of 2.9% since I added it to my portfolio.