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January 21, 2009

Who's Yer Buddy, Who's Yer Pal?

Nice to know someone's lookin' out for us...

...If you were one of the many of us who thought that government's eminent domain powers only applied to real property, I have some bad news to report. As it turns out, our government now seems able to condemn intangible property as well. That includes your rights as a shareholder.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: I guess the B of A head bubba is pissed at the former Merrill head's fuzzy math.

Thain quits Bank of America: reports

John Thain, former chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co, has resigned from Bank of America Corp , just three weeks after the companies merged, The Wall Street Journal and CNBC television said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at January 21, 2009 04:47 PM

Comments

This is SUCH bullshit. Merill should've had to seek a wholly-private financed buyer, or be allowed to fail. There was absolutely no difference, as far as I can tell, between Merill and Lehman, so why were they treated in diametrically opposite ways one day apart? And now thanks to Uncle Sam, BofA eats Merill's bad debts and gets fucked, when before it was one of the most solvent players in this whole mess.

Posted by: Dave J at January 21, 2009 05:32 PM

Yuppers! Don't you think it's strange how word of this angle isn't getting out?

Posted by: tree hugging sister at January 21, 2009 05:44 PM

Gee, and some people wonder why small government is such a popular idea with a certain segment of the population.

Posted by: JeffS at January 21, 2009 07:26 PM

According to their own website, 66% of BofA shares are held by institutional investors and mutual funds. If what that linked post says is true then Hank Paulson has put the legend of Wilt Chamberlain to shame by several orders of magnitude.

Posted by: Dave E. at January 22, 2009 12:21 AM

To use a word I rarely ever use: oh, shit.

Posted by: ricki at January 22, 2009 08:58 AM

During the debates, I remember Joe Biden looking solemnly at the camera and saying, in effect, "People are looking at the government in these times, and they are saying, 'Please help.'" I almost jumped through the screen to slap him, and I know exactly what reply I would have given him, if I had been in Sarah Palin's place: "The people don't want the government to help; they want the government to STOP helping. Government 'help' caused the whole housing and financial crisis. Government 'help' made unsound lending a mandated policy; government 'help; forced healthy companies to risk too much of their capital on poor risks under threat of heavy fines and other legal penalties; government 'help' blocked needed reforms and oversight; and now government 'help' is threatening to bankrupt the public treasury in order to prop up the damaged markets. The best thing our government can do now is to allow the people the freedom to help themselves - let them keep more of their own salaries, let them choose their own insurance carriers and make the choices that are right for their families, and give them the financial tools to save up and ride out these tough times. The people are the true power of America, and instead of asking them to believe in us, it's time we believed in them."

Posted by: nightfly at January 22, 2009 10:33 AM