Hanging The Public

Merrill Lynch prides themselves on helping the individual and making their first priority the client relationship. Quoting from their website, five abiding principles they stand for are: "Client Focus, Respect for the Individual, Teamwork, Responsible Citizenship, and Integrity." Those might have been the founding principles that built this corporation but after the stock market crash of 2008, shareholders probably thought of a few other words that would describe Merrill Lynch's principles: money hungry. 


In 2007, Merrill Lynch (will be referred to as ML from this point) had an average stock price of $84.88. After the crash, the lowest price I could find was $17.05 in 2008. Since January 1st, 2009,  ML has been purchased by Bank of America, stock has been fluctuating but hasn't dipped below the double digits (yet). 


ML's revenue and profit in 2007 was 70 million and 7.5 million respectively. They were #70 on Fortune 500 Global that year. In 2009, a year after the stock market crash, revenue and profit were 16.8 million ( -73.9% from 2007!) and negative in profits by 27.6 million dollars. What a difference 2 years makes right?


ML did receive TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) Funds from the US government (from taxpayers) to help strengthen the financial market for 2008. How much? 15 BILLION (yes with a B) dollars. But Bank of America also received TARP funds as well so even more billions were acquired...


ML was heavily involved in subprime mortgages after seeing how other financial institutions were making so much profit and wanted to also increase their profit. ML started to bundle and repackage loans, debts and mortgages in loans (securitization) and then sold it to investors for a certain risk, and profit. But as we now know that didn't end so well.


But the most amazing information I found was that ML usually gives bonuses in late January/early February. But on December 29, 2008, 3 days before the Bank of America buyout, ML distributed $4 Billion dollars in bonuses. Quoting from a NYTimes article, "11 of the bank’s top executives received more than $10 million in cash and stock, ....The bonus payouts for Merrill’s 10 highest-paid total $209 million in cash and stock in 2008, compared with the $201 million shelled out to the top 10 in 2007, according to The Journal." Attorney general of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo who was investigating the bank's questionable distribution of bonuses "made it clear that the bulk of the bonuses were paid to a small portion of Merrill Lynch’s 39,000 employees."  Though from the same NYTimes article, "Thomas Montag, Merrill’s head of global sales and trading, received a  $39.4 million pay package and Merrill stock awards valued around $50 millionAndrea Orcel, a top Merrill banker now leading Bank of America’s international corporate and investment banking division, who took in $33.8 million".


Merrill Lynch used to stand for catering to the individual, making their financial future stable but by the articles I read and by the numbers, I must focus on the words used to. Now it seems financial bigwigs are only looking out for themselves and their personal bank accounts.


For more on the shady-ness of Merrill Lynch I found a super interesting article on NPR:
here.


Sorry this post is so late, I consumed a lot of chocolate bunnies today.


A.B

Talk Is Cheap...No, Seriously It Is.

When ever I am in a store with my Mother or Grandmother both look at item they are wiling to purchase and immediately turn them over to see where they are made. Most of the time they put the item back where they came from. Why? It's not because of the price, it's because it is (probably) made in China. Now I not saying that everything that is made in China is necessarily made cheaply, but one cannot deny that many things are. When my parents where growing up, most things were made in the good ol' USA, with a label stitched with our flag on it. Nowadays looking for goods made in America is like looking for a needle in a haystack. In the dark. 


It is no secret that Americans love cheap things. For most big retail chains, (Macy's, Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) their tag line has something to do with low prices, and most places now will take competitors coupons just to get a sale. But while consumers are doing their happy dance on the great deal they just scored, they don't even realize the consequences are staring them in the face. By purchasing cheap goods, US consumers might be getting quantity but they sure as hell are not getting quality. Products produced overseas by workers who are pressured to make garments in mere minutes and are paid very little are not helping anyone but big businesses. US workers are being laid off by the thousands because factories are outsourcing jobs and paying international workers less money while working (unpaid) overtime. 


US workers are being swept under the rug by free trade because everyone wants to save money on goods that will need to be replaced in a timely manner. By not making things in our own respective country we are killing our economy and helping the unemployment rate rise. Now, I am not saying that I also am not guilty about looking comparably at two toasters and buying the one that is cheaper. We all want to save a (few) bucks. I know times are hard, but it's like they say: "You have to spend money, to save money". After reading and writing an essay on free trade this past week I think there are more definitely more options than just free trade. So next time you're browsing around in your local retail, electronic or grocery shop, look or ask (if you want to see an employee sweat) to see if anything is made in the USA. If so, help your fellow (wo)man and yourself by contributing your money to fair labor conditions and rightful pay in America, and help get us out of this stupid recession! 

When's the last time you have seen one of these?

It's the middle of the week. Friday is so close, I think I see it.
A.B

Consuming Labor

I am a consumer. I am not ashamed to say it. I enjoy purchasing goods for not only myself but for others as well. Target has cured many bad days for me if only for a few hours. You know those people in the mall who lure you to their kiosk to try an Organic Sea Salt Scrub from the Dead Sea, that'll make your hands feel 10 years younger? Those people used to love me.I sometime amaze myself how guillible I can be when my friends always tell me  I am a cynic.  Though my family and friends believe I am about three shopping bags away from an intervention, I definitely spend within my budget (mostly).
This past week I have been reading articles on sweatshops and the effects on not only the workers but on consumers and I am seriously considered changing my ways. Now I know that when most people say they want to make a change in lives, it is an grand (and unrealistic) change. Changes don't happen overnight and neither do results.  That's why adjusting a small part of of life is much more realistic and easier to achieve. I know that my interest in apparel is a tough one to manage but if I start to revise my spending on quantity, and start trying to purchase things that are quality, knowing that I am not only helping myself, but also for the people who make them.


I watched this trailer the other day on HBO and found it really interesting. Its amazing that the Triangle Fire revamped the US Labor system but this example should be the standard everywhere, not just in America. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbDoBlUPJUg




Have a lovely Monday.


A.B

Do you know where your clothes are made?

One of my assignments for English was to find out where my clothes are made. Automatically I thought of China, because let's be honest almost everything it seems is made in China nowadays. But focusing on the workers, I found that the condition laborers work in are appalling. Severely cramped spaces, breathing toxic chemicals and working with machines that are highly dangerous without the proper safety equipment. Taking an average of the articles I read, most laborers make 3.45 US dollars a day. Adjusting that wage to the standard of living in America is roughly $1.80 a day, which in damn near impossible to live on in the US, especially since gas alone is 4 dollars (and rising). Finding out how these laborers are living almost the extreme opposite of what many Americans live like is truly saddening. It is  perplexing to think of because many of these brands are designed/ headquartered in the US and made in third-world countries. Makes me wonder if I should be proud to wear some of the thing I do knowing where it is being made..

Hey World, just wanted to say hi..

Hello. Hola. Greetings and Salutations.


I never thought that I would create a blog, being as though I talk too much in the real world as is, but as a requirement in my current English class, I am expected to upkeep a blog talking about current issues and anything else I want to talk about.


 So to start off my first post I will tell you a little bit about myself:

• My major is Biochemistry  (I really enjoy being in labs *nerd alert!*)
• One day (Hopefully soon, I'm getting old..) I plan on becoming a doctor 
• My middle name means 'coral' in Swahili
• I am a fantastic car dancer
• I think peanut butter is absolutely disgusting

This quarter I hope to improve my skills as a writer in my English class and a better annotator. I believe this blog can help me achieve this by my fellow classmates and whoever else stumbles across this by telling me (constructively of course) what I can improve on in my posts.


So I would like to end this post saying, writing essentially a diary that billions of people have access to is slightly unnerving! I am a pretty private person and writing a diary never interested me for a long period of time for I would go back and look at the topics I wrote and they always seemed so trivial.


Let us hope I don't feel that way once this class is over..


Wishing you a Monday better than the last


A.B