Dean - there's still hope for you yet. Finally you've written something that I agree with. Ken Lewis has to go

it does seem outrageous that school teachers and firefighters are being taxed to pay 7-figure salaries to Ken Lewis and the rest of the top executives and to keep BOA shareholders happy.

It seems criminal to me. This is theft. Pure and simple.

And why don't you want to own BofA?,at least temporarily.
Isn't that the only way we will get this mess sorted out?

Dean, I think you've answered your own question.

Why does Ken Lewis still have a job? Because he was able to get $45B in government money, plus billions more in loan guarantees, for his POS company that's barely worth that much.

Sounds like pure genius to me! Unless it's crony capitalism. Either way, you've got to have a crony in there, don't you?

I would like to see the Obama administration take a different approach. They should give the banks two choices: make it work on your own, or let us (the government) take you over. And when we take over, there will be no sweetheart deals for the top executives.

Alas, with Tim G. at the head of Treasury -- one of the architects of the a la carte bailout deals last fall -- I fear we will more likely see more of the same, until this house of cards with scotch tape glue and rubber bands finally collapses in a wet, sticky pile.

Then the real fun begins. Cheers!

-- ARG

Congress could simply tell BoA that you get the bail out on two conditions:

1- You dump the executives that caused your troubles, Ken Lewis, etc.

2- These executives get no bonuses or golden parachutes to take with them.

Yeah, right!

Oleeb is exactly right.

Part of the job of a major executive is to extract benefits from the government. It's called, in econspeak "directly unproductive activity", which is inaccurate because the negative is in the wrong place, but don't worry about that right now.

It expands to fill the universe of benefits to be extracted. The more government involvement there is in the business, the more DUP is rational. Ken Lewis could earn a billion dollar bonus and be worth ten times his salary based on the deal he got.

I remain amused by Baker and others blaming executives who are, after all, doing exactly what they're supposed to, instead of government, which really is basically selling out the taxpayer.

And suggesting that the solution is to get government more involved.

If the money truly is going to unanticipated losses at Merrill, then the people who should be getting axed are all the ones over there who a) screwed up in the first place and b) cooked the books to conceal it from the initial acquisition team. BoA has many sins to its debit, but taking on a huge failing brokerage house was not its idea.

Bank or America can choke on all that war profit from Halliburton, Kerr McGee, KBR and BURN IN HELL!

The bailout is an intentional rip off of the taxpayer. Nothing less. A scam all the way. It leaves no doubt we have criminals running this country. It makes me sick.