John Thain while being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on CNBC:

“If you don’t pay your best people, you will destroy your franchise.”

No, John – risky investments, horrible trades, incompetent traders, etc. will destroy your franchise…

From July 31, 2008:

https://bcclist.com/2008/07/31/woops-goldman-sachs-bad-bet/

Revisited on September 4, 2008:

https://bcclist.com/2008/09/04/goldman-sachs-bad-bet-revisited/

Yes, I understand that Thain ran Merrill Lynch into the ground and the above links (rightfully) ripped Goldman Sachs’ horrible analysis of the oil futures market.

Regardless, there’s no talent on Wall St. worth $18 billion. These overpaid clowns are human. There are plenty of humans that can crash a market. Good luck in prison.

1:50 mark…