ShareIt seems that not a day goes by when you don’t hear about some asset sale in Citigroup’s far-flung empire. Of all the major too-big-to-fail institutions, it is easily the most troubled: the poster child for everything that is wrong in finance in America.
But, when President Obama’s Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg stepped in to [...]

ShareBelow is a good video analysis by Jess Bravin of the Wall Street Journal on the BofA-Merrill Lynch saga.  Bravin discusses the recent rejection by Judge Jed Rakoff of the out-of-court settlement between the SEC and Bank of America (BAC) in which BofA was to pay a miniscule $33 million fine.
Rakoff’s decision to scupper this [...]

ShareThank goodness someone has some sense. Manhattan Federal District Court Judge Jed Rakoff refused to approve Monday’s Bank of America’s deal with the SEC be cause it may be unfair to the public to accept the settlement.
Bank of America was accused by the SEC of lying to shareholders about its role in bonuses at Merrill [...]

ShareBank of America’s story in the BofA-Merrill saga has always sounded dubious at best.  Ken Lewis has always claimed he was doing what was right by shareholders and America, that Gentle Ben and Hammering Hank coerced him into the Merrill deal, that Merrill’s CEO John Thain was not completely above board.
All of this should be [...]

ShareWhile Citi and BofA are getting taken to the woodshed for double secret probation, JPMorgan Chase is showing record revenue of $25.6 billion and a large profit of $2.7 billion.  As profit is up 36% from a year earlier and 27% from just last quarter, you can see that JPM is now firing on all [...]

ShareCongressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) claims to have evidence supporting Ken Lewis’ original contention that he as threatened by government officials for contemplating pulling out of the BofA-Merrill deal.  Let’s review.  Two weeks ago, Lewis pointed the finger at Paulson and Bernanke in testimony before Congress (see my post).  This came after claims of government coercion [...]

ShareThe drama at Bank of America continues with Ken Lewis testifying before Congress today.  Most of the events surround claims by Lewis that he was coerced into doing the Merrill deal by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke.   I chronicled these events when they were made public back in April.

BofA CEO confirms government coerced him into [...]

Here is the SEC press release regarding the fraud and insider trader alleged to have been perpetrated at Countrywide Financial, now a part of Bank of America (emphasis added):

ShareJim Cramer is not just calling a stock market bottom, but now he’s calling a housing bottom too.  In fact, he says go buy a house.  “Buy a house and buy Bank of America too?”  Cramer says: “This is patently obvious.”
Take a look and tell me what you think.  Personally, I know his stock picking [...]

ShareEarlier today I posted an article about how accounting was favourable to banks in that it could help them weather the storm and appear well-capitalized until a recovery is underway.  Afterwards, a buoyant economy would increase earnings enough to allow the massive writedowns that need to flow through the income statement to be taken in [...]