Thain Resigns After BofA Learns That Merrill Paid Bonuses Early

His Wall Street pedigree seems impeccable. A top job at Goldman Sachs. The chief of the New York Stock Exchange. Finally, the reins of the stock market’s “thundering herd,” Merrill Lynch.

But in less than 15 minutes on Thursday, the charmed career of John A. Thain was derailed.

Three weeks after his foundering brokerage firm was sold to Bank of America for $50 billion in stock, Mr. Thain was pushed out by the bank’s chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis, who is struggling to contain the damage from his bank’s daring gamble on Merrill Lynch.

Gaping losses at the brokerage firm forced Bank of America to seek a second financial lifeline from Washington last week, leaving Mr. Lewis’s bank, the nation’s largest, facing an uncertain future.