BUSINESS BRIEFS
Merrill Lynch bonuses trigger N.Y. subpoenas
Advertiser News Services
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NEW YORK — The New York attorney general yesterday issued subpoenas to former Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain and Bank of America's chief administrative officer, J. Steele Alphin, amid an investigation into bonuses Merrill paid executives just before being sold to Bank of America.
Thain, 53, was serving as the head of the newly combined company's wealth management division before he resigned last week. The resignation came shortly after reports surfaced that billions of dollars were paid to Merrill executives in late December.
Those bonuses were paid as Merrill was about to report a $15 billion fourth-quarter loss, and while Bank of America was seeking more federal funds to help it absorb the mounting losses at the New York-based investment bank.
Bank of America has said it knew about the bonuses, but had no authority over the payout because the Merrill sale had not been completed.
GEITHNER LIMITS LOBBY INFLUENCE
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in his first full day on the job, announced new rules yesterday to limit special-interest influence on the government's $700 billion financial rescue program. The new rules are designed to crack down on lobbyist influence over the rescue program and make sure that political clout in not a factor in awarding rescue money.Obama administration officials said they go farther than the lobbying rules imposed by the Bush administration and are designed to ensure that bailout money is distributed with the goal of promoting the health and stability of the financial system.
LOW EXPECTATIONS GOT LOWER IN DEC.
NEW YORK — Americans' mood about the economy darkened further in January, sending a widely watched barometer of consumer sentiment to a new low, a private research group said yesterday.The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index edged down to 37.7 from a revised 38.6 in December, lower than the reading of 39 that economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected. In recent months the index has hit its lowest troughs since it began in 1967, and is hovering at less than half its level of January 2008, when it was 87.3.
"It appears consumers have begun the new year with the same degree of pessimism that they exhibited in the final months of 2008," said Lynn Franco, Conference Board economist.
