In the mid-2000s, a little-known banker named Osman Semerci rocketed from relative obscurity to Global Head of FICC at Merrill Lynch—not through decades of seasoning, but by threatening to walk.

This episode dissects how Semerci’s audacity—and Merrill’s hunger for mortgage profits—fueled an era of breathtaking risk. We follow the arc from boardroom brinkmanship to the multibillion-dollar CDO bets that left the bank teetering as the subprime crisis erupted.

Host Cherise Lloyd peels back the layers of power, posture, and misplaced confidence that turned a career leap into a cautionary tale—and helped push Merrill toward its $50 billion fire-sale to Bank of America.

🔊 Listen for:

• The negotiation that landed Semerci Wall Street’s most coveted seat
• How structured credit profits masked catastrophic exposure
• Why swagger, not spreadsheets, drove one of finance’s biggest miscalculations

Overleveraged, Overconfident brings you the hubris, the hidden memos, and the lessons every ambitious professional should steal—minus the meltdown.

This episode was researched and written by Cherise Lloyd. Some music was created by using UDO. You can find show notes, transcripts, and sources at www.overleveragedoverconfident.com. Follow us on Instagram at Overleveraged Overconfident. Support the show on Patreon and help us keep deep-diving into those spectacular financial fails.. Overleveraged Overconfident is part of Seven Seven Spider, which specializes in deep dive research and financial storytelling. All research uses publicly available sources, so no confidential or regulatory information, just my keen sense of spotting nonsense.