Of Lipstick and Pigs
Poor Merrill Lynch. Seems the judge who kept dismissing investor suits against them for trotting out the likes of Henry Blodget to tout stocks that their investment banking side had heavy interest in died, forcing Merrill to negoitiate a $164 million settlement to close out 23 remaining suits.
Don't you worry about Merrill, though. According to their spokesman the settlement ``doesn't change the fact that it was a record quarter and a record year.'' That's the spirit!
As for Blodget, well he's holding forth over at Slate, still reportedly getting his feelings hurt by the occasional nasty email message, and offering such helpful advice as this:
"when a Wall Street analyst rates a stock "Buy," is he or she advising you to buy it? Actually, no. In most cases, a "Buy" rating—or, for that matter, a "Sell," "Hold," "Outperform," "Accumulate," "Avoid," "A," "D," or other term—is not intended to advise you, a specific investor with specific goals, circumstances, and requirements, to do anything."