NYSE head John Thain has taken up the job of CEO at Merrill Lynch. This move is definitely a good one for Thain. The direction he will take Merrill in is up for speculation, but he has said the mortgage industry can be very profitable if invested in correctly. So it seems Merrill won’t be divesting itself of mortgage securities under Thain’s leadership. There are certainly more write-downs on the horizon for Merrill and it will be interesting to see how Thain steers through the mess.

[tags]nyse, john thain, merrill lynch, shaun carter, ceo, chairman, mortgage, investing, securities[/tags]