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Jim 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 [...]

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Earlier 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 [...]

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The following Bloomberg article points out why I have repeatedly argued that banks will be earning a lot of money, Meredith Whitney’s counter-arguments notwithstanding. It also points out why the likes of John Hempton believe that the FDIC ‘stole’ Washington Mutual from shareholders and awarded it to JPMorgan, a view I have not supported (hat [...]

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In the CNBC video below, Ken Lewis defends his company’s performance on the stress test and answers some pointed questions in the John Thain – Ben Bernanke – Ken Lewis – Hank Paulson he said she said match.  He also details how Bank of America plans to raise the $34 billion in capital to deal [...]

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If you haven’t noticed, the Treasury department seems to be leaking the results of the stress tests to reporters at the Wall Street Journal.  Richard Bove, a well-known bank analyst was on Bloomberg Radio this morning talking to Tom Keene and said he knows they have been leaking.  Yves Smith was on top of this [...]

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This is from BofA’s website:
Bank of America Corporation today announced the results of management and shareholder proposals at the company’s 2009 annual meeting…
All 18 directors were elected to the board by comfortable margins. In addition, management proposals regarding executive compensation and the retention of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC as the company’s independent accounting firm were approved.
Seven shareholder [...]

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Over the past few days, I have written two posts regarding the increasingly acrimonious sparring surrounding Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

The horrible self-dealing of Ken Lewis and the principal-agent problem
BofA CEO Lewis investigated by SEC
BofA saga continues as John Thain calls Lewis a liar

The latest news is stunning: Bank of America’s MAC [...]

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The leaks about who failed the stress tests are already starting.  Who got a big fat ‘F’?  Apparently, Citi and BofA for starters.  But is that any surprise?
Regulators have told Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. that the banks may need to raise more capital based on early results of the government’s so-called stress [...]

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The Wall Street Journal is running a front-page story about John Thain today in which he  accuses Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis of lying about events surrounding the Bank of America – Merrill transaction and the ouster of Thain as a top Bank of America executive.  Thain spent most of his career at Goldman [...]

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I don’t much like Ken Lewis. It should be fairly obvious to everyone that he is a man who has only his own interests at heart. But, his revelation that BofA bought Merrill Lynch for the agreed-upon September price, despite Merrill’s having an additional $7 billion in losses is grounds for legal action.
Let’s review the [...]