Ken Lewis Wants More of Your Money...Banc of America part deux
Filed under 'Ken Lewis wants more of your money', the great taxpayer fleecing continues unabated. In Bank of America part II, the details are starting to emerge and they aren't pretty.
What makes this particular bailout so infuriating to so many (yes, this one is rasing eyebrows everywhere), requires a list to explain:
- It's the second time for BofA at the public trough. In late October, they got $25 billion in the first TARP handout.
- The meetings were held in private and NOT disclosed until this week. Where is the transparency for taxpayers?
- The stated need for the emergency funds and backstop was to soldify their purchase of Merrill Lynch. Excuse me, but they made this decision on their own and for the 'sole benefit' of their shareholders. They were under no pressure to do a deal.
- They paid an inflated price for Merrill and now they need you to provide a cushion. If memory serves, they paid a substantial premium to the market for Merrill's shares and were quickly pilloried for their valuation misjudgement. Ken Lewis' response to this accusation of having overpayed was typical CEO arrogance. He criticized the naysayers for not understanding the core value of the Merrill Lynch brand.
One slightly encouraging development is the whiff of anger and outrage that seems to be in the air. FINALLY. Let us hope that once stirred, taxpayer anger can be directed appropriately.
The details. Pretty much what we guessed last night when we first reported on this story. Amazing how they are getting the same amount as Citi this go-round. The numbers being floated are $20 billion from you plus a backstop, also from you, for $120 billion in bad loans. I will be susrprised if the backstop comes in at less than $150 billion when the papers are brought forth.
The most refreshing read on this subject today has been Henry Blodgett over at his site clusterstock. He is rightly outraged and we love his passion here at theDailyBail. Keep up the great work. Soon we will have momentum on our side.
Jan 16, 2009 at 12:49 AM
Reader Comments (4)
First Bitches!
SPODE
again kudos to spode...
have you ever been a member of siliconinvestor.com
just curious...
looking at this pic of Lewis above makes me want to puke and then hit something breakable...
The photos and graphics on your site are nice. I also like that you have no advertising or flash on the site. This picture you have makes me want to punch his smirking face.
I just found your site through TechCrunch. Someone mentioned it in the comments section of an iphone story. I like it. I like that you have no advertising. lol
I am a single mother with 2 young sons and I work in the tech industry in california. Our state is facing a large budget shortfall this year and we have been asking Washington to bail us out and I think it's wrong. The politicians in our state would rather look to Washington to cover our budget shortfall than actually look at the reasons for our shortfall. Yes, revenues are down this year becaue of the slowdown, but the true issue is bloated stae budgets, and health care and pension benefits that have been promised to public workers.
In vallejo which filed for bakruptcy in 2008, there were 42 police and firefighters earning in excess of $200k per year. Are you kidding me? For public employees, this is unreal. And these employees will receive 90% of their salary in the form of a pension for every year for the rest of their lives. And we, the taxpayers of california have to pay for their excesssice packages.
And if Washington just bails out all these states that are in trouble, then these states will never be forced to cutback their spending. And these bloated state salaries and pensions well never be corrected.
It makes me very upset when I think about.
update: i am posting my thoughts about the state bailouts in all the comment's section.