You have got to me kidding me!!!!

[Hobbes]

John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch , finally revealed the names of the executives who received multi-million dollar bonuses on the eve of his failing firm's merger with Bank of America, ABC News has learned. Thain was ordered to reappear before New Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Tuesday after initially refusing to divulge the details of the firm's controversial 11th hour bonuses from a $3.6 billion pool.

Thain, in his first deposition on February 19th, had initially refused to answer questions regarding the bonuses, according to a partial transcript of that session. On Monday, he was ordered to reappear after the Attorney General's office sought and received a court order compelling him to answer the questions.

The bonuses became a subject of the investigation into Merrill's merger with Bank of America by Cuomo's office after the Attorney General raised whether the two banks -- which together received about $45 billion in taxpayer dollars -- worked together to arrange the early bonus plan just weeks before the merger was completed.

The bonuses were awarded despite the fact that Merrill lost $25 billion in 2008 and posted greater than anticipated fourth quarter after-tax losses of $5 billion dollars.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6959962&page=1#.TxEr1vKy86o

 

[RickN]

And yet the government MADE Bank of America merge with them anyway and MADE them take TARPS funds.

The Bank, in its January 16, 2009 earnings release, revealed massive losses at Merrill Lynch in the fourth quarter, which necessitated an infusion of money that had previously been negotiated[48] with the government as part of the government-persuaded deal for the Bank to acquire Merrill. Merrill recorded an operating loss of $21.5 billion in the quarter, mainly in its sales and trading operations, led by Tom Montag. The Bank also disclosed it tried to abandon the deal in December after the extent of Merrill's trading losses surfaced, but was compelled to complete the merger by the U.S. government. The Bank's stock price sank to $7.18, its lowest level in 17 years, after announcing earnings and the Merrill mishap. The market capitalization of Bank of America, including Merrill Lynch, was then $45 billion, less than the $50 billion it offered for Merrill just four months earlier, and down $108 billion from the merger announcement.

Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis testified before Congress[11] that he had some misgivings about the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, and that federal officials pressured him to proceed with the deal or face losing his job and endangering the bank's relationship with federal regulators.[49]

Lewis' statement is backed up by internal emails subpoenaed by Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee.[50] In one of the emails, Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker threatened that if the acquisition did not go through, and later Bank of America were forced to request federal assistance, the management of Bank of America would be "gone". Other emails, read by Congressman Dennis Kucinich during the course of Lewis' testimony, state that Mr. Lewis had foreseen the outrage from his shareholders that the purchase of Merrill would cause, and asked government regulators to issue a letter stating that the government had ordered him to complete the deal to acquire Merrill. Lewis, for his part, states he didn't recall requesting such a letter.


Nice try but it all just proves that the government should not be involved at all.

 

[Hobbes]

Well Duh

Of course the government shouldn't be involved at all.
That's not exactly rocket science.

I noticed that the .gov never seems to bail out a small wheelchair company.
Of course small wheelchair companies don't donate hundreds of millions of dollars to political campaigns like wall street does.

 

[RickN]

Well Duh

Of course the government shouldn't be involved at all.
That's not exactly rocket science.

I noticed that the .gov never seems to bail out a small wheelchair company.
Of course small wheelchair companies don't donate hundreds of millions of dollars to political campaigns like wall street does.

Heck I would have been happy if the government would have just paid us in a reasonable time frame.