Compiled by Robert N. Taylor

Black Financial Expert Becomes Biggest Corporate Scapegoat for the Country’s Credit Crisis

            (Taylor Media Services) Brokerage giant Merrill Lynch & Company last week forced the resignation of its African American CEO making him the biggest corporate casualty thus far in the unfolding credit crisis currently gripping the nation. In an announcement Tuesday, the world’s largest brokerage firm said it had suffered a quarterly loss of $2.2 billion and appeared to place the blame on CEO E. Stanley O’Neal and his investing of company funds in the risky sub-prime mortgage industry.           

The sub-prime industry had been hit with record defaults in recent months as a result of questionable loans extended to people with poor credit histories. The 56-year-old O’Neal had invested heavily in the sub-prime market and when defaults mounted Merrill Lynch was forced to write down $7.9 billion in bad loans. The losses suffered by Merrill Lynch were the worse in its 93-year history.