25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis
The good intentions, bad managers and greed behind the meltdown
Merrill Lynch's celebrated CEO for nearly six years, ending in 2007, he guided the firm from its familiar turf — fee businesses like asset management — into the lucrative game of creating collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which were largely made of subprime mortgage bonds. To provide a steady supply of the bonds — the raw pork for his booming sausage business —O'Neal allowed Merrill to load up on the bonds and keep them on its books. By June 2006, Merrill had amassed $41 billion in subprime CDOs and mortgage bonds, according to Fortune. As the subprime market unwound, Merrill went into crisis, and Bank of America swooped in to buy it.
See the worst business deals of 2008.
See pictures of the stock-market crash of 1929.
View the full list for "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis"Latest Lists
Most Popular »
- Rachel Uchitel: Tiger Woods' Alleged Mistress
- Can Attack Dogs Be Rehabilitated?
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- What to Do About Europe's Secret Nukes
- How Will Tiger Woods' Apology Affect His Image? A TIME Debate
- An Italian Town's White (No Foreigners) Christmas
- Why Ireland Is Running Out of Priests
- Why Fritz Henderson Is Out as GM's CEO
- The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell
- Could the White House Party Crashers Go to Jail?
- Paris: 10 Things to Do in 24 Hours
- Feeling Alone Together: How Loneliness Spreads
- New Evidence That Early Therapy Helps Autistic Kids
- For Churches, Beefed-Up Security Is a Mixed Blessing
- Can Dopamine Make Your Future Look Brighter?
- Is Gene Therapy Finally Ready for Prime Time?
- The Secrets Inside Your Dog's Mind
- How One Army Town Copes With Post- Traumatic Stress
- Workers of the World vs. China Inc.
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
RSS