More on Bank of America
baselinescenario.com 9/28/2009 — Last Wednesday I wrote a highly critical post about the agreement between Bank of America(BAC) and the government (Treasury, the Fed, and the FDIC) to terminate BAC’s asset guarantee agreement in exchange for a payment of $425 million. I’ve learned some more about this and I think ...

Bank of America Goes Public on Back Door Politics of Merill Deal
economicdiscourse.com 2/5/2009 — Bank of America broke the critical $5/per share level today on renewed concerns about their financial stability. The markets are fearing the worst, and as the ship begins to sink, new information on the politics of the merger are beginning to bubble up. Bank of America is essentially declaring ...

Did Bank of America Mislead Investors?
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com 1/16/2009 — Bank's of America's not-so-surprising announcement on Friday that it is being bailed out by the federal government because of excessive losses at its new Merrill Lynch subsidiary raises a number of questions. The most significant of these is what did ...

Bank of America modifies their 2008 Bonuses, response to Merrill?
economicdiscourse.com 1/29/2009 — Some meaningful changes for Wall Street bonuses at BAC. Bank of America to defer bonus payments Bank of America Corp. will defer year-end bonuses paid to employees in its capital markets and investment banking units

Bank of America Already Dismantling the Merrill Franchise: The Cracks are Starting to Form
economicdiscourse.com 2/26/2009 — The WSJ reports that Bank of America is looking to sell First Republic Bank. The private bank that was purchased in 2007 from Merrill for $1.3 billion. This marks a critical point for the institution, it has turned to selling assets as a source of cash. Our own government could partly be at ...

In Bank of America Mess, Whither Wachtell?
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com 10/16/2009 — Deal Professors Steven Davidoff and Peter Henning mull over the potential dilemma facing Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz after Bank of America agreed to waive its attorney-client privilege for documents related to its Merrill Lynch deal.

Ken Lewis, the Master Government Negotiator
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com 5/15/2009 — Bank of America's Kenneth Lewis has made some questionable private deals, but he is a master at negotiating with the government and leveraging a weak hand to cover his missteps, The Deal Professor says.

No, Wait! You Got It Backwards!
baselinescenario.com 2/26/2009 — There is nothing inherently wrong with convertible preferred stock. In Silicon Valley, for example, venture capitalists almost always invest by buying convertible preferred. The idea is that in the case of a bad outcome, the VCs are protected, because their shares have priority over the common ...

Bank of America Threatens Fed, Demands More Cash From Taxpayers
globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com 1/16/2009 — Bank of America fell a whopping 18.43% today, hitting a new 52 week intraday low of $7.35 on concerns it is not going to easily be able to digest the merger with Merrill Lynch. I suggest Bank of America has easily bitten off more than it can chew and ...

Opportunities in Bank Bonds, Part 2
alephblog.com 3/12/2009 — Thinking about Citigroup and Bank of America — Given to Fincorp Clients 3/4/09 When the government gets involved in business, the rules of the game change. Creditworthiness becomes less of an “analyze the metrics” affair, and more of a “how strong of a guarantee” affair.  ...

Still Picking Apart the Stress Test Results — The Big Money 5/10/2009
For better or worse, plenty of people are looking at the bank stress test results released late last week as a benchmark for the state of the financial sector and the economy as a whole. The New York Times cautions that any overly positive spin on ...

The Stress Test Placebo — The Big Money 5/12/2009
The stress tests on the country's biggest banks sparked a new round of confidence in the sector, enabling the banks to raise tens of billions in cash without government support. The test results-whether you liked the test itself or not-felt like an ...

Merrill Tries to Muzzle a Blog — The Big Money 5/12/2009
$45 billion in TARP money could help Bank of Americ a (BAC) fund an awful lot of mortgages, payroll loans and credit facilities. But for BofA's Merrill Lynch division, it seems what was at the top of their shopping list was erasing the views of ...

Banks, Reborn. — The Big Money 5/14/2009
Slate's Camilo Jose Vergara presents a retrospective slide show depicting bank buildings that have evolved to house other businesses. He also muses on how shifts in financial culture may have changed the physical architecture of banks: Since ...

BofA Pressured to Bust Up the Board — The Big Money 5/15/2009
The Wall Street Journal leads off its coverage this morning with an exclusive report saying Washington is putting the heat on Bank of America to re-shuffle its board , insisting on a fresh injection of blood with more financial industry knowledge ...