Well, in fairness, he was at Goldman Sachs for 22 years, Merrill is the fat unpopular boy of Wall Street. Nobody goes to Merrill unless there’s a ton of cash and security involved. His bailout package was probably finalized with the employment contract.
Exactly. He might not be regretting the move at the moment (given that many Goldman execs had to give up their bonuses), but without this bonus he probably would be. He knew what he was doing when he negotiated his contract, and I don’t see how anyone can blame him for this.