Fire the Bastards . . .
This is l o n g overdue.
“Federal officials have pressured Bank of America Corp. to revamp its board by bringing in directors with more banking experience, as regulators place the bank under increasingly heavy government scrutiny.
The move represents unusual influence by the federal government over the workings of a financial institution in which it doesn’t own a stake. It’s particularly significant because many of the bank’s woes stem from its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. — an acquisition that was completed after heavy prodding by federal regulators. [BR: Really? What about China Construction and Countrywide Credit ?]
The Merrill deliberations were the beginning of regulators’ deepening involvement in the Charlotte, N.C., lender’s day-to-day operations.
The moves underscore the balancing act faced by the federal government as it tries to steer the banking sector through its crisis while also involved in a broader pattern of engagement in the operations of individual U.S. banks.
’nuff said
>
Source:
BofA Urged by Regulators to Revamp Board of Directors
DAN FITZPATRICK and DAMIAN PALETTA
WSJ, May 15, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124235572006122687.html
May 15th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Federal officials have pressured Bank of America Corp. to revamp its board by bringing in directors with more banking experience
Who would think to appoint directors that have sound banking experience to the board? What a terrific idea!
Hey, maybe this principle can be applied to other boards.
::eyeroll::
May 15th, 2009 at 10:17 am
jpm:
My thought, exactly.
“Federal officials have pressured Bank of America Corp. to revamp its board by bringing in directors with more banking experience, as regulators place the bank under increasingly heavy government scrutiny.”
The last thing we need is more banking experts. They should hire someone who is fiscally conservative, knows how to balance a checkbook, and who doesn’t have any knowledge of or interest in the securitization of fraudulent “assets.”
We have learned nothing. Yet.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:21 am
It’s absolutely crazy that people expected President Obama to sweep into office on a flying carpet, snap his fingers, and make regulatory institutions dance that had atrophied under 30 years of pervasive conservative/Reaganite ideology. It’s going to take some time for him to clean out the roaches and expel all the Regent Law School flunkies from the positions they gained over this period. The President has stated time and again that recovery, relief and reform are the three legs of his economic agenda, and I wonder if the mud-slingers will eventually admit that their assessments were too hasty.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:22 am
They must want more Goldman guys on the board.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:25 am
@GREYDOG
LOL
May 15th, 2009 at 10:27 am
@Franklin
‘No Mr. Bond…I expect you to DIE!’
Auric Goldfinger 1964
May 15th, 2009 at 10:28 am
what are the structural problems with boards of directors? where were the boards at enron, indymac, citicorp, tyco … ? how do the incentives that make boards roll over for management mesh with the incentives that make management trash good companies on their way to a golden parachute or a bigger better opportunity at a new company? why is there no correlation — on any metric — between management compensation and corporate performance?
conservatives are fundamentally confused on this issue. “leave management alone, let the market decide” is their mantra. but decision making is not a market, it’s a process. the process is broken in the american model of capitalism. idiots and malefactors flourish at the highest levels. paging ken lewis!
there should be legislation, and not selective arm twisting, to fix this problem. (dream on.)
May 15th, 2009 at 10:30 am
@franklin: You and I agree on that but he’s gotta start somewhere and sometime and NOW’s as good a time as any to show that it’s not going to be business as usual on Wall Street. Thus far I’ve seen very little from O to give me the indication that it’s anything but business as usual.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:34 am
@drollere
legislation = law
What about “contract law”? (i.e. capital structure of Chrysler, mortgage cramdowns, etc.)
Seems to be there is A LOT of “selective arm twisting” going around these days when it is convenient to address a problem…
May 15th, 2009 at 10:43 am
@Mannwich:
President Obama is a pragmatist who understands that politics is the art of the achievable. If the economy is allowed to deteriorate because he was single-mindedly focused on reform and ignored recovery, then neither will be accomplished. You have to be choosy: recovery is the top priority, and anything that threatens, detracts, or distracts from that goal is to be relegated to a lower priority. Reforms that can be accomplished now without affecting recovery can be pursued. For instance, credit card reform will not hamper the recovery at all. Health care reform will actually stimulate recovery as businesses are no longer saddled with the world’s least efficient and most ineffective health care system. We didn’t get into this mess overnight and we’re not getting out of it overnight.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:47 am
@franklin411: Fair enough and I agree to a point but I believe the bank bailouts (and others) are being handled incorrectly and will likely have catastrophic consequences all around. You can’t tell me this doesn’t concern you in the least? It’s continuing down the very wrong and distastrous path that we’ve been on for the last 30+ years.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:54 am
They’re all just jerking off the public, it’s a show. Reality is they all know what each others ‘cranks’ taste like.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Who cares about Bailouts, Summer starts in 2 Fridays from now… Are we ready?
STAY THIRSTY MY FRIEND !
May 15th, 2009 at 10:55 am
i realized another important reason why this whole bailout process is bothering me. the institutions that are being helped are getting all of this help FOR FREE. it seems obvious to me that at some point these institutions should pay some healthy fees: like for insurance, or back interest or something. it could be deferred until they are healthy. i really don’t get the free help.
a list of who is actually paying would be interesting. like: healthy banks, retirees (lower interest rates earned), etc.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:56 am
@Franklin
pragmatic – relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic
I’m not trying to argue with you with regards to what Obama “thinks” he might be trying to accomplish…I’m simply questioning your use of the term “pragmatic” (definition above)…
Many here would argue that the most PRAGMATIC thing to do (as a matter of “practical affairs”), would be to let the MARKET itself weed out the excess and errors of the past 30 years…
Sure, it would be painful, and BHO would likely be made the scapegoat by an American public that doesn’t understand the depth of things, they simply default to the logic “it happened on YOUR watch”…That would chagrin many of the people who support Obama…
So instead, he has chosen to take a chance and “paper over” the problems…To see if he can kick the can down the road for yet another 4-8 years…Meanwhile, he uses IDEALISTIC notions (such as reform of this or that), as the actual TICKET to evaporating all the errors of the past…
The debt of this country isn’t going to be cured by healthcare reform, it is not going to be cured by, cap&trade, it’s not going to be cured by foreclosure relief, credit card relief, bailouts, or anything of the like…
It’s going to be cured by letting people, and industries fail…And out of that mess comes the innovation to rebuild a more efficient future…
THAT, my friend, would be PRAGMATIC…Distasteful, but pragmatic…
May 15th, 2009 at 10:58 am
@bmoseley: It’s time to bring back onerous tax rates (maybe, say 90+%) for any executive who’s firm received bailout money. That should be a disincentive to take bailout money (and to thus stop looting your own firm) in the future.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am
@Manny
How about we slap a 90% tax on the executives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA for authorizing stupid expenditures and putting our own balance sheet at risk?
May 15th, 2009 at 11:07 am
@Mannwich:
If the economy every collapses as some here are arguing it will, it will NOT be due to bailouts (Bush’s or Obama’s). It will be the natural product of 30 years of our failure to invest in the future. It will be the product of the political and social choices made by the American people as a whole.
@cvienne:
Markets are not divine entities. They’re human creations, and as such are fallible. In fact, much of the stock market’s rise and fall from 2005-2009 can be attributed to human emotion rather than the so-called immutable “laws of economics.”
And “painful” means different things to different people. Typically, we find that pain to be acceptable that is inflicted on other people. We find that pain that is inflicted on ourselves to be unacceptable. And remember that Stalin thought killing millions of Russian peasants was an acceptable level of pain to achieve his goal of reshaping the Russian proletariat.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:16 am
@franklin: Interesting. It seems you’re laying the groundwork for absolving O of any responsibility of his policies ultimately fail. Is that where you’re going with this? Now it’s true that O inherited the biggest turd sandwich in our nation’s presidential history, but this is HIS baby now. He has to own this and will ultimately own it one way or another, so if these bank bailouts do ultimately fail, like it or not, it will be perceived to be HIS fault.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:21 am
@franklin411
You may be on to something…a little Stalin for the “bankers” might be just what the doctor ordered…
Some of us pay others to inflict pain upon us…
Myself, I just want to see a little blood on the streets
Yours truly,
Vlad
May 15th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Larry the K just touted SWHC stock, and then pitched it to reporter Margaret Brennan who’s covering the NRA conference. Margaret ended the segment hoisting up an M-16 or something of that variety.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Any greatness that was ever achieved in this country was achieved on the basis of HARD WORK…
Not to justify “slavery”, but from an economic standpoint, IT WORKED because it allowed for cheap labor and profits…
During the industrial revolution, “slavery” still existed (more or less) in the form of child labor, and a flood of immigrants
After the collapse (due to overcapacity), the GD was forced everyone into a FIGHT for SURVIVAL mode yet again…We eventually emerged through a combination of basic needs, will to live, and WWII didn’t hurt the cause either as we became the largest industrial supplier
Since WWII, we have never been faced with the same degree of FIGHT TO SURVIVE…
We lived on cheap oil…we maintained profitability by shipping our labor force overseas…and recently we’ve used creative finance to keep ourselves believing that THIS was the future…
These days, our FIGHTING SPIRIT is completely centered around FIGHTING TO KEEP ENTITLEMENTS WE’VE ENDOWED OURSELVES WITH…
I don’t imagine there is a politician on the planet who is willing to stand on a platform, face his or her constituents, deny the entitlements, and pave a real future…
May 15th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Margaret Brennan can load my M-16 and hoist it any time.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
cvienne,
you’re a bright guy, but you keep repeating this: “After the collapse (due to overcapacity), the GD…”
you can’t believe that Business Failures led to lower stock prices/Crash of ‘29, can you?
May 15th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
@Hoffer
I apologize for that because I can see that it came off as one dimensional…Of course we can toss in “speculation”, and all of the other causes, but I was just being expedient…
One of the reasons that I tagged “overcapacity” (although I didn’t mean to single that cause out)…was the fact that it applies to the present day environment…
Look at China…OVERCAPACITY
Look at the US auto industry…OVERCAPACITY
Look at the result of the “buildout” process of BRIC (circa 2003-2007)…OVERCAPACITY
Look at housing…OVERCAPACITY
Look at the “post” WWII recession in America…OVERCAPACITY
My point is that when these economic conditions occur, the result is a DEFLATIONARY environment…
It is a problem that can’t be solved by monetary policy measures (as the powers at be are attempting)…
The solution is DEMAND CREATION, or OBLITERATING SUPPLY CAPACITY…
DEMAND CREATION is now difficult because America is in debt and the rest of the world is too poor.
SUPPLY CAPACITY can be shuttered for periods of time, but it needs to stay shuttered until DEMAND catches up…
The world is simply OVERBUILT at this juncture in time…
May 15th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
cvienne:
All of that is true, but it must be balanced against the fact(s) of fiat currency — it always inflates, ’cause that’s all it can do. When the pressure gets high enough, we will inflate, and it won’t be meek. We’ll all be billionaires.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
“nuff said”… that sounds so amateur.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
cvienne
Yep, we pulled huge amounts of consumption/demand from the future over the last couple of decades, especially the last 8 years. Now we’re trying to do more of the same to get us out of this hole. How can we possibly think that this can work? I know, I know, we’re not thinking of anything but the immediate future right now. And continue to hope that some kind of miracle will make it all just go away.
The only way to do it is to accept that we will have a much lower standard of living for quite some time, and start building an actual capital base again for the future. But we don’t have the stomach for that in this country.
And any money we spend needs to be targeted to actual productive ends like energy production. But not the way we’re doing it now which is encumbered by crony politics and thus extremely wasteful and slow. Propping up failing industries, etc. will only make things worse.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
cvienne,
w/ this: “I apologize for that because I can see that it came off as one dimensional…Of course we can toss in “speculation”, and all of the other causes, but I was just being expedient…”
the point is that “Overcapacity” didn’t trigger Business Failures, and those BKs led to ‘the Crash’.
‘the Crash’, exposed the “Overcapacity”–that was Created by a Wave of Fiat, from our old Friends at the FedRes..Hellooo, Economy Ramp n’ Crash ver. 1.0–we’re playing our way through ver. 2.0, as we speak..
May 15th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
“Frankling:
@Mannwich:
If the economy every collapses as some here are arguing it will, it will NOT be due to bailouts (Bush’s or Obama’s). It will be the natural product of 30 years of our failure to invest in the future. It will be the product of the political and social choices made by the American people as a whole.”
What exactly do you mean by “our” failure to invest in the future?
May 15th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
@Hoffer
OK my friend…I’ll go along with that…
In any case, same result in the end…
@troy
When you read over it…sure sounds like some kind of “pyramid scheme” doesn’t it?
Wanna know something?
My gosh…If Obama would stand up there and spend all these trillions on creating a future for ALTERNATIVE ENERGY production which would be viable for the future, INSTEAD OF WASTING IT on shoring up perceived entitlements…
He’d be a freaking HERO to me!
I’d be in there with FRANKLIN…
Actually, Franklin stated it correctly earlier today…He called Obama a “pragmatist”…
It was the “hope” and “change” that made everyone buy into what Obama campaigned on…Now that he has become “pragmatic”…he’s lost it…
What the left is just starting to figure out is the following:
The “hope” and “change” that Obama promised would come at the cost of upsetting the apple cart…now that they SEE that, they don’t want the apple cart “toppled” because it would result in pain…
As generally goes with the territory, it is inherently difficult for liberals to make tough decisions…
I’ll be FAIR here…Many in the Bush Administartion (and ESPECIALLY Republicans who held Congressional seats in the earlier years) failed to make tough decisions as well…
In 2000-2002, EVERYONE, I mean EVERYONE weenied out (nobody could bear to let go of the false prosperity of the previous decade)…
But SOMEBODY has to grab the bull by the horns sooner or later…Obama (despite his charm), has not demonstrated any cojones since he’s been in office)…
So here we are…TICK…TICK…TICK…Time passes by…
May 15th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Hey evienne…..you didn’t used to post on a music board as “badclown” by any chance did you??
May 15th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
@Christopher
Negative my friend…
It must have just been some other guy with nothing intelligent to say
May 15th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
LOL
Not at all…..just another person who had a little homestead in the hills of WV…..and your use of the ……..
Seemed a bit familiar.
Speaking of music!!!
WHERES OUR FRIDAY AFTERNOON MUSIC THREAD???
Gratuitous Music Link!!
These are some good friends of mine…..who happen to hail from San Antonio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GckcfTSi7lY
May 15th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
it doesnt seem logical to put so much blame on the financial crisis on the banking industry and the people who run it, and then to say that we need to replace the BofA board with people who have “more banking experience”.
May 15th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
“The world is simply OVERBUILT” …..oh my .. redact that
“waste is a terrible thing to mind” scratch that too / to “waste is a terrible thing to produce”
The Alan Parsons Project – Psychobabble – from Eye in the Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7RbZNT5A2A&feature=PlayList&p=076F03F4506AB75D&index=11
The Alan Parsons Project – What Goes Up – from Pyramid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AdS86RWlgs
May 15th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
@Greg0658
I’ll redux that AP
” A Waste is a TERRIBLE thing to mind”…
May 15th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
“Federal officials have pressured Bank of America Corp. to revamp its board by bringing in directors with more banking experience,”
So, like these guys will show the other guys how to cheat better AND get away with it? Sweet.. LOL
May 15th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Hopefully ‘directors with more banking experience’ is code language for liquidators. They should be selling assets, issuing more common and paying down their debt. If they are TBTF than make them f*ucking smaller.
May 16th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Speaking of Countrywide Barry the resident and dirty dodd got “Special” home loans from the friends of Angelo and I see the tanned one is under investigation will they then investigate the smelly one? Can we then fire or impeach those bastards?
http://www.businessinsider.com/sec-recommends-fraud-charges-against-countrywides-mozilo-2009-5
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/07/10/judicicial-watch-files-ethics-complaint-over-obama-loan/
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GPMD_enUS317US318&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=dodd+and+obama+got+loans+from+countrywide