CEOs gone wild: John Thain’s $1.2-million office reno

New York magazine reports that “former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, the man once credited with ‘revolutionizing’ the New York Stock Exchange and Goldman Sachs, is the new most-hated man on Wall Street. Across the board this week, coverage of his $1.2 million office redecoration and his subsequent forced resignation was infused with disgust.”

How exactly do you spend $1.2-million on an office reno?

• Sent assistant to Staples and she just sort of went crazy.

• Might have something to do with the Olympic-sized swimming pool.

• Trap door in front of desk was fine as is, but pit needed new snakes.

• Show me one CEO on Wall Street whose office doesn’t have a Starbucks.

• Instead of buying boom box for couple hundred bucks, insisted on keeping Fleetwood Mac over in the corner.

• Existing floor coverings weren’t made entirely from endangered birds.

• Sure, in retrospect, one trampoline might have been sufficient, but…

• Desk had to be made from solid gold or it would have clashed with solid-gold chair, couch and secretary.

• Bed that folds out from wall discovered to be completely hookerless.

• You’d think the collapse of the global economy would mean a decline in the price of live Siberian tigers, but you’d be wrong.