Harold Evans on John Thain's bonus and spending sprees at Merrill Lynch

In the few days in December while he was still in charge, Mr Thain reportedly spent nearly $4bn on staff bonuses. That's peanuts on Wall St. In 2007 Mr Thain himself received $83m.

But a week ago, CNBC's Charles Gasparino, in a detailed scoop on the Daily Beast website revealed that during the time Mr Thain was busy cost-cutting, he spent $1.1m doing up his office - $86,000 for a rug, $35,000 for something called a commode on legs.

Readers bayed for blood, posting comments such as: "Oh how I wish this was Revolutionary France and we peasants could storm the offices…"

~ Harold Evans, "Banker + gangster = bankster," BBC, January 30, 2009

John Thain on Merrill Lynch: "We have more capital than we need" (2008)

We have more capital than we need, so we can say to the market that we don't need more injections. We can confirm that we have tackled the problem.

~ John Thain, former CEO, Merrill Lynch, March 16, 2008