Bank of America Edges Closer to Tipping Point

[steve2470]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-04/bank-of-america-edges-closer-to-tipping-point-commentary-by-jonathan-weil.html

It was only last April that Bank of America Corp. was making fools out of the doomsayers who had called for its nationalization a year earlier. Taxpayers had gotten their bailout cash back. Investors who bought its shares at the bottom were making a killing. Government leaders lauded the company’s rescues, both of them, as a great success.

Now the bank may be on the verge of trouble again. Its stock has fallen 41 percent since April 15. Mortgage-bond investors are demanding untold billions of dollars in refunds. The foreclosure fiasco is metastasizing. A member of the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s oversight panel, AFL-CIO attorney Damon Silvers, openly worried at a hearing last week about the risk that Bank of America might need another bailout.

A few more months like the last one, and we may be wishing Bank of America had never returned its $45 billion of TARP money.

You wouldn’t know there’s anything wrong with Bank of America by an initial look at its balance sheet. The company showed common shareholder equity, or book value, of $212.4 billion as of Sept. 30. And its regulatory capital ratios have risen steadily throughout the year.

[dkf]

1. Isn't this why we passed financial reform?

I thought we now have a process to wind down these entities?

[Dawson Leery]

2. LET THEM FAIL!

[RKP5637]

3. At some point failure for these dinosaurs might be best for the country. I wish

someone had come and bailed me out every time I needed help.

[nc4bo]

10. +1. nt

[leftstreet]

4. Nationalize them n/t

[RKP5637]

7. Exactly. This country needs to get a bit more innovative than just heaping

money on these guys when needed business as usual. Talk about corporate welfare. This well might become a revolving door. Wonder what Geithner will say this round if it comes time for a proposed bailout. Supposedly the best businesses are to rise to the top and if they can't hack it they fail. Now we just prop them up.

Ridiculous.

But all us little guys are supposed to have our financial records in perfect order, if not, then it's our fault and we get screwed, but the big guys play all the angles while we go bankrupt.

[w4rma]

13. That isn't happening with the House in Republican hands. But we sure can let them fail. (nt)

[Donnachaidh]

5. And how many BONUSES have they doled out this year?

Let them FAIL. Period.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Enough to warrant another bailout from their pals in congress.

[RKP5637]

8. Yeah, all those political contributions, thank you SCOTUS, will come in

handy so they can continue to screw the little guys while the banksters roll in cash. Little guys would go to jail for life for petty offenses and these guys just roll on and on, like in a third world country with oligarchs.

[citizen477]

9. The Little Guys Get Hurt... Again!

The only challenge with letting them fail is that the "little guys" like us will lose jobs. But, then again, other companies that had to lay off workers did not have the luxury of a bailout.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. Umm: "B. of A. to pay bonuses of more than $4 billion"

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/b-of-a-to-pay-bonuses-of-more-than-4-bln-2010-02-03

Somebody please tell me... WTF is going on here?

[w4rma]

16. Money laundering. (nt)

[SoCalDem]

12. TARP was supposed to be for BUYING those "assets"

They took the loan money, paid it back and kept the assets.. It's a DUH!

Let's say you had a clunker car, and someone paid you $500 for it, but left the pink slip with you and never claimed the car..then you gave them the $500 back..

You still have the clunker that does not run, you don't have the $500.....how is your position any different than before you "sold" the car :rofl:

[kentuck]

14. The next bailout is called "nationalization".

We, the taxpayers, would own it. There would be a new board of directors. All investors lose whatever they have invested. Such is the nature of business. Banks are no exception.

[RickFromMN]

15. Any gossip on the Tea Party Reaction to a possible Bank of America bailout?

I assume the Bank of America is too big to fail.

I assume this means we have to rescue the Bank of America if it is in danger.

I assume the Democratic and Republican leadership will see it this way.

I thought people from the Tea Party used rhetoric indicating they were opposed to any bailouts on principle.

Are any of my assumptions wrong? I'd like for one or more of my assumptions to be wrong.

I wish Bank of America were not too big to fail if it's in trouble. I wish it could go through Chapter 11.

The little child in me wants to see the Tea Party get mad if Bank of America is bailed out.
I want the Tea Party mad at the Republican leadership. I'd be very quiet.
One doesn't make noise in a theatre. I'd just sit there and eat my popcorn and enjoy the show.

[steve2470]

17. kick for today's crowd nt