Bank of America Receives $138 Billion of Rescue Funds

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: Bloomberg.com

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, received a $138 billion emergency lifeline from the government to support its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. and prevent the global financial crisis from deepening.

The U.S. will invest $20 billion in Bank of America and guarantee $118 billion of assets “as part of its commitment to support financial-market stability,” the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a joint statement shortly after midnight in Washington.

<snip>

Talks between the government and Bank of America have been under way for the past couple of weeks, a government official said. The bank told regulators in December it might abandon the Merrill takeover because of worse-than-expected results, three people familiar with the matter said on Jan. 14.

Emergency Steps

The government insisted the Merrill deal proceed because its collapse would renew turmoil in the financial system, said the people, who declined to be identified as the talks were private.




Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aeZm19V4gAxY&refer=home

---

Let's see: Talks were private, deals were done at MIDNIGHT??

I guess if you are going to rape the taxpayers, you sure as hell don't want to do it during normal business hours.

How much of *OUR* money has been spent so far to help out the middle and lower class working slobs??

[jordi_fanclub]

1. BAC bailout hole... 163-42 = 121B

Let's see...

Bank of America Corp. market capitalization
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:BAC
(BAC + Merrill) as of today (1/15) : 42 billions

BAC bailout: 25 (BAC+ML) + 138 = 163 billions


:wtf:

[acmavm]

2. Well as long as the money is going to cover unethical and very possibly

illegal behavior by Wall Street shitheels, that's fine. But we have to make damn sure that those who are poor, homeless, hungry, uninsured never get their grubby needy hands on that money.

:sarcasm:

[Divine Discontent]

3. this is embarrassing and outrageous... how many billions are they giving the banks after all is said

and done. :(

[Blandocyte]

4. They had their chance

Give some bailout bucks to banks that managed their business well so *they* can buy Merrill! All we're doing is giving more money to the same people who seek to be the only game in town. It's starting to seem like a taxpayer supported scheme to grant near monopolies.

[ixion]

5. so let me get this straight... BoA bought Merrill Lynch, knowing they were insolvent

and now we're being asked to bailout that decision.

:wtf:

This bailout crap is nothing more than robbery, pure and simple.

[formercia]

30. The buyout allowed the boys to recover their investment at taxpayers' exp.

They have already bought their Gold bars and laughing.

[Kindigger]

6. Ok I'm confused

why is my new B of A card now an American Express card? :shrug:

[xchrom]

7. recommend -- well isn't that nice.

:puke: and i guess the FEW dollars they were going to give us back in our paychecks is off the table.

[bluestateguy]

8. Watch how fast they piss it all away

nt

[ro1942]

11. repubs look like hero's

We could open new well managed banks for this kind of money. Dems are bending over backward for the rich. Obama leading the charge.

[Alcibiades]

9. So when they say there's no money

For health care, Social Security, or anything else, you know it's bullshit. There sure was money for Wall Street!

We need to make this issue as toxic for the Republicans as "welfare" became for the Democrats in the Reagan era. The difference is that, while Republicans cited "welfare queens" who drove Caddies and who never existed in the first place, the recipients of Republicon welfare live on Park Avenue and are very, very real.

[wellst0nev0ter]

10. Last Parting Gifts From The Bush Crime Family?

Giving money to a company that is too big to fail, that has bought out another company that is too big to fail, both of which are facing failure, in order to create one GInormous company that will be too big to fail.





















Talk about fail.

[Baby Snooks]

12. Don't forget the "family" on Capitol Hill...

The Bushes have never acted alone. Don't forget that. Congress could say no. Congress keeps saying yes.

The FDIC should have just started shutting down these banks. In the end, it would have cost the taxpayers far less.

As for Merrill Lynch, well, why should the taxpayers subsidize its purchase by anyone? If it made bad investments, well, too bad. Isn't that what their clients were told? Too bad?

We have gone from "by the people, for the people" to "by the corporation, for the corporation" to "by the crooks, for the crooks."

And so far it doesn't seem like things will change much with the president who promised us change.

[wellst0nev0ter]

13. Right, Forgot This Theft Was Bipartisan

Forget about a third party, where's the second? I wonder how much the financial systems would be fixed if instead of flushing the bailout money down the toilets of corporate nazi shitheels, we acutally bought out homes facing forclosure? All those CDOs and other stuff part of the financial derivative alphabet soup might finally regain some make-believe value again and we won't be in such a panic.

[L0oniX]

14. So in other words we bought Country Wide for them ...how nice.

The mother fuckers went and bought Country Wide not too long ago. WTF I suppose they were not approaching trouble back then? Yea right!

[HughBeaumont]

15. To top it off, remember that BofA is going to fire 35000 workers over the next 3 years.

Awesome.

And in exchange, they'll put restrictions on Executive pay? Are you kidding me?

I fucking HATE Corporate America. It needs to change and FAST; otherwise, America will not survive. Mark my words. You cannot fuck this many millions of people over for an extended amount of time to please only a handful of overrich bastards who sit on all of the cash they legally steal. You cannot keep sustaining a system that keeps the boom/bubble/crash insanity going while continuing useless and wasteful wars, never paying debt down and never taxing the rich.

This was a systemic screwing that started in the early 60s and has been festering its way to this boiling point ever since.

We NEED to get a better social safety net. Guaranteed Income, Maximum Wage, Universal Health Care. We need to stop bailing out people who least need it. Stop tying employment to mere survival and start practicing and taking care of what the rest of the world sees as human rights. Stop collapsing your economy every 5-7 years. It's an absolute disgrace that we still buy into this futile exercise and think it works.

[Hansel]

37. Same with Wells Fargo. They were given 25 billion to buy Wachovia

Now they are talking layoffs. Our whole division is probably going to be gone within the year. That's a few thousand people who worked their asses off to make the division profitable only to be kicked in the ass so that a loser company like Wachovia can take the department over and destroy it like they did theirs. But Wachovia outsources so that's all that matters. Penny wise, pound foolish.

God I hate these people.

[Romulox]

16. Remember when DUers and Pub Congressmen alike were wringing hands over the $25B to the automakers?

Somehow many of these same posters have lost interest in being government watchdog. :shrug:

[Barack_America]

17. Well-remembered. And let us not forget that the banking and finance industries...

If you can even call them "industries", were the ones who got us into this mess.

But money for the men and women who actually produce something in this country? No, no, that's just so *beneath* us. Watching DUers get sucked up in the hysteria surrounding a Big 3 bailout (a hysteria whipped up to put a chokehold on the unions) made me more sad for DU than I've ever been. Sadder than the primaries, in fact.

[Romulox]

18. I asked at least a half dozen of DU fiscal watchdogs what Citi's CEO makes...

still waiting.

"Watching DUers get sucked up in the hysteria surrounding a Big 3 bailout (a hysteria whipped up to put a chokehold on the unions) made me more sad for DU than I've ever been."

Yeah. :-(

[craiga86]

32. Actually your only 1/2 right

It wasn't JUST banks that got us into this mess. People were overspending and spending more money than they actually had. Bottom line. Who were these banks lending to? These mortgage securities that banks put equity in, who accepted this big mortgages that they couldn't afford?

I just think its pathetic when people are short sighted. I know there's an inclination to hate the financial services industry, just like republicans hate lawyers and claim them as being a democrat-based constituent. The same goes around here. People at DU seem to be quick to jump the gun when it comes to the Banks and other financial service industry related businesses. Let's start being objective about these things.

[Barack_America]

40. People can't spend money that they don't have or that they're not lent.

When consumers are expected to know more about finance than the financiers, this is the inevitable result.

[Marie26]

24. $25 billion is a drop in the bucket

We're doling out hundreds of billions to BOA & AIG w/no problem. But I guess the difference is whether it might benefit blue-collar workers or white-collar businessmen.

[AzDar]

19. " Thank God It Passed"...

:puke:

[Romulox]

20. I think maybe one of the "thank god it passed!" chorus still has the guts to post in these threads.

[Runcible Spoon]

31. hahahaha THANK GOD IT PASSED

I'll second that :puke:

[Marie26]

21. Bank of America, built on late fees & default rates

After bleeding consumers dry that way, they took the tax money too. Splendid.

[myrna minx]

46. So when can expect a lower interest rate on my card?

:eyes: Yay! I get to pay them twice.

[nebenaube]

22. damn them to hell

the fuckers bought our second mortgage then refused to allow us to refinance to a fix-rate on the first! They are half of the problem with the economy!

[antimatter98]

23. 138bn for a bunch of yahoo's down in Charlotte NC? Amazing. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

25. ugh...

and who in congress weeps for the millions who can't find jobs (like myself?) :argh: :nuke: :grr: :banghead: :rant:

[darkmaestro019]

26. bailout?

I supposedly OWE BOM over 300 bucks, no wonder they need a bailout, since in their world 113-86=-300 and counting!

Where's my fkin bailout? (loathe)

[DS1]

27. FUCK THEM!

If they can charge me for having less than 20 dollars in my savings account, they don't fucking deserve a goddamn motherfucking bailout!

Fuck every last one of those piece of shit motherfuckers!

[customerserviceguy]

28. Wow, that was a close one

I was so worried that all those crooked Merrill Lynch muckety-mucks would only get a fraction of their golden parachutes!

Seriously, if I'm on the jury for anyone on trial for killing a muckety-muck, there's going to be some well-deserved jury nullification...

[Maven]

29. Seriously, BofA is a criminal enterprise

How many class action lawsuits do they have against them for bilking customers out of undeserved penalties?

And now they're getting $138B from our government so they can stay open and keep FUCKING people.

:puke:

[SunflowerPipes]

33. Bank Of America is Just Plain Bad

Over the past couple of months I missed a couple of payments on my Bank of America card. I was out of town for some of the time and just forgot to make a payment. They put my interest rate at 10 times what it had been before. I pointed out that I had sent them 600.00 all of my fees and penalties but informed them that i would not be able to pay the higher interest rate which is now 30%. They refused and closed my credit card hurting my credit but keeping the new 30% interest fee intact. Bank of America has little mercy or patience for their customers and they are burying people like me and at the same time getting massive government welfare. Obviously Bank of America is a dark enterprise whose ambition for money and power has created a significant negative influence on the lives hundreds of thousands of people. I do not know what can be done about them But I do wish that something is done change this company into something much worthy of its name.

http://SunflowerPipes.com

[cottonseed]

34. We're going to end up buying the whole ponzi scheme.

We fund these "too big to fail" banks to buy up even more banks. It's like the NCAA tournament. There will be one or a few major banks left, be it BofA, Wells, or Citi. They'll continue to be asked to buy up the rest of the crap and when it's all said and done we'll own the ponzi scheme.

All we'll have left is the distant memory of the news stories of multi-million dollar bonuses we got every christmas from around 2005 to 2008. Oh those were heady days.

[slipslidingaway]

35. It's great that the two administrations worked so hard to put

this deal together.

:sarcasm:

[classysassy]

36. "Weben Hadd

those bankers are a really slick,and we have been had again.

[slipslidingaway]

44. Agree we are being had :( n/t

[depakid]

38. Looks as though Kenneth Lewis is about to lose his job...

Lewis has presided over a sharp drop in Bank of America's share price, which has fallen 41 percent so far in 2009. The shares fell on Friday to $7.01, their lowest level since 1991.

"All the explanation in the world is not really going to assuage calls from many of his shareholders for his head," said Gary Townsend, president of Hill-Townsend Capital, a Maryland hedge fund specializing in financial companies. "Is there someone else who can step in and run the company at this point? I should hope so."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN1628651120090116

[cosmicdot]

39. tidbit: Former Gen. Tommy Franks

is, now, on BoA's Board of Directors

http://idea.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000119312508060591/ddef14a.htm#toc79615_18

Total compensation for Kenneth Lewis, Chairman, CEO and President

2007
$24,844,040

2006
$27,873,348

The Board got comp'd nicely, too, in 2007. Imagine sitting on multiple Boards.......

http://idea.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000119312508060591/ddef14a.htm#toc79615_16

[slipslidingaway]

45. Rewards for a great job, thanks for the figures n/t

[bottomtheweaver]

41. Let's talk about SSI, because the pukes want us to think it's broken.

Shame on those lazy senior citizens!

[pinniped]

42. Did these .gov fuckers ever say where this 700 billion came from?

Did they call Gary Coleman from Cash Call?

Was it simply printed up at the mint?

Did they finally swipe the SS money? Is there even 700 billion in there?

I still think they simply printed up bank notes.

Emergency lifeline my ass. This will go down as the biggest con ever perpetrated on the Merkans.

received a $138 billion emergency lifeline

[Marie26]

43. Wasn't this money supposed to be used to buy troubled mortgages?

Whatever happened to that plan?