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John Thain Heads to CIT

Former Merrill CEO to lead troubled lender.

Now that he has a new job, will he get his $35,000 commode back? Ousted Merill Lynch Chief John A. Thain is now taking over CIT Group Inc. The appointment, announced Sunday, is effective immediately and Thain will start his new job on Monday. The over-100-year-old commercial lender emerged from bankruptcy in December. The New York-based company was crippled by former CEO Jeffrey Peek’s venture into subprime lending before it filed for bankruptcy. CIT is under constraints connected to the 2008 bailout, meaning it’s shut out of its traditional source of funding, the commercial paper market. “If we’re going to get the U.S. economy to continue to grow, if we’re going to create jobs, then we need to have this kind of a company do well,” Thain said Sunday.