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Wednesday, April 08, 2009

I Just Have One Question for Ken Lewis

Bank of America's CEO, Ken Lewis, did an interview today with Fox Business News. Zerohedge has the transcript.

My favorite part:

On differences between Bank of America and Citi:
“I don’t want to bash Citigroup, but there are some striking comparisons. First, I mentioned our core deposit levels. We grew our deposits $42 billion last year. We didn’t have a loss of deposits. We made $4 billion last year after tax. We didn’t lose money. So there are some striking differences. And then finally, when we were asked to go to Washington and asked to take $15 billion of the first TARP money, we had just raised $10 billion in common. We didn’t need more money. We did it for the better good. I feel like I’m living the saying, ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ because it is not a fair comparison.”


I just have one question: if BAC didn't need the initial TARP funds, and just took them for the greater good of These United States, then why the fuck did the government need to come in and backstop $118 BILLION of their crappy assets? Was that for the greater good too Mr. Lewis?

Seriously... Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

-KD

4 comments:

Barnacle Bill said...

Lewis is the ultimate DOUCHE!

Anonymous said...

The $118 billion was post the Merrill Lynch acquisition, and was primarily meant to backstop losses for that deal. They took the $15 billion prior to the deal announcement.

As has been repeated ad nauseum, they wanted out of the Merrill Lynch deal (which I assume they could have gotten with any standard MAC clause) but the government wanted them to complete the deal.

The additional assistance was to spur them to complete the deal.

Also of the original $25 billion, $10 billion was meant for Merrill. So if they hadn't done the deal with would only have borrowed $15 billion, or an amount they could pay back with a sale of their CCB stock.

Kid Dynamite said...

that is a completely bullshit excuse: "i didn't want to buy MER - the gov't made me do it." BAC is not the victim here

Lewis wanted MER for years - and he's such a horrendous dealmaker that he thought he was SCOOPING the company.

but guess what - it's irrelevant. if there were $118 BILLION in impaired assets at MER that he didn't do his due dilligence on - that is MORE evidence of his gross incompetence

Anonymous said...

Are you ever going back to Vegas and leaving a post that's fun to read? Last time I went I printed about 6 of your trip reports to read on the plane ride out there....perfect prep for the trip.