frontline had a show about bank of america merger with merrill lynch
basically the merill lynch folks were the typical new york financial folks, so they expected bonuses for doing the deal. bank of america was based in charlotte and they were furious the lynch folks having run their company into the ground would then argue for bonuses for doing a deal.
when ken lewis was under pressure and about to get fired. boa released the bonus information to get the heat off boa and onto merrill lynch. then they fired john thain.
for merrill lynch shareholders it does appear that john thain got a well deserved bonus because he tricked boa into paying more than it was worth.
boa tried later to get out, but the government wouldn't let them. then the fed basically made boa whole by giving a bailout to them.
so basically the taxpayer paid, and the merrill profited. for boa it's a wash.
it's pathetic these assholes aren't in jail for collapsing the american economy. instead they're profiting from it on the way down.
taking away their money won't do much.
they need to take away their livelihoods as they have done to many americans and place them in maximum security prisons, not cushy minimum security prisons, because they should be classified as extremely dangerous individuals.
the only way to make the US whole is by heavily taxing financial businesses and workers wealth, then putting that money into social security. that's the only way the public will get their money back.
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