Can John Thain work wonders at Merrill Lynch?

Merrill Lynch's 2 quarter results are out. They're less than spectacular, and the street didn't think that they would be. A write down of more subprime mortgage debt, resulting in a quarterly loss of us$4,9bn. And that ain't the end of it. Wait it 30 September 08 for another drubbing at quarterly report time. John Thain has his work cut out for him. He remains upbeat: Merrill has a liquidity of us$92bn, so it can sustain more and bigger losses. But for how long? Thain left Goldman Sachs after the anal hair stylist and then CEO and now US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson took his crown as an heir apparant from his head, and exiled him to China. Thain came back strong, ushering the New York Stock Exchange public and profitable. Now, he's being asked to work his magic on Merrill which is nose deep into subprime mortgage debt. He's going to sweat blood to do that. And that's the truth. For unless he turns that venerable white bread house around, it too will go belly up as 18Brumaire thinks Lehman will by end of 1 quarter 2009.