One man thundering

An action-movie hero can easily do the work of hundreds of normal men. At Merrill Lynch, Tom Montag has five months to show that he has the necessary grit. To be precise, he needs to show he can be as valuable as the 412 employees who won’t be hired by the Thundering Herd. Montag just slipped into his new job as head of sales and trading at Merrill less than two weeks before the investment bank declared a hiring freeze. Any exceptions must be signed off by a top honcho. But Montag’s contract – $...