To paraphrase Lyndon Johnson: “Doing the right thing is easy; knowing what the right thing is? That’s hard.”

Really?

I have a few questions. Let’s start with questions for John Thane, the Bank of America and former head of Merrill Lynch exec who got fired yesterday:

What made you think it was ok to spend 1.2 million dollars to decorate your office?

Why do you need a 35,000 dollar toilet?

Why would you think you deserved a 10 million dollar bonus when the company you led lost 15 billion dollars?

And, finally, why would you think it all right to approve bonuses to your execs a month before you normally do, and only 2 weeks before your company changes hands?

Now, folks, what’s hard about that? I can name countless other examples including Dennis Kozlowski, Ken Lay, and the bozos from the car companies riding the private jet to DC. The point is that there seems to be a mindset inside Wall Street that believes this kind of stuff is okay; it’s their birthright or something.

As plain as I can say it…THIS IS NUTS.

I broke away from this kind of junk nearly five years ago (because it made me sick) to form Triune Capital. We are a very small regional firm with one office trying to do business the right way. Here’s where the rubber meets the road. You guys still would rather do business with Merrill Lynch than a small company with a proven track record of being dedicated to doing the right thing. You make this choice (perhaps subconsciously) because the Merrill’s of the world are big, glitzy, have golf tournaments, advertise on the Super Bowl, etc.

Where is your outrage with yesterday’s headlines?

Why aren’t you taking all of your assets away from the “entitled celebrity stock market monarchies” and letting the principled, ethical, hard working emerging firms manage your money?

For all you stock brokers out there who proclaim that you want to do the right thing. Where are you in all of this? How many of you are jumping ship going from one celebrity monarchy to another, pocketing a huge check in the process only to find out that you have gone from the frying pan into the fire? Why aren’t you knocking down my door? After all, it is the right thing to do.

Have PoliticalMavens.com delivered to your inbox in a daily digest by clicking here