House targets Fed in Bank of America investigation (Bernanke)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A House panel has subpoenaed documents that lawmakers say could shed new light on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's role in Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

The subpoena comes ahead of a hearing next week in which Bernanke is scheduled to testify.

Lawmakers have accused Bernanke and President Bush's treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, of pressuring Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis into the deal and urging him to keep quiet about Merrill's financial problems.

Not divulging that information would have violated Lewis' fiduciary duty to the bank's shareholders.

Lawmakers also have questioned whether Lewis threatened not to go through with the merger in order to squeeze money from the government.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bank_of_america ;_ylt=An0PSEmMN9WWTehNVeorZpus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTI4cWgxbXZxBGFzc2V0Ay9hcC91c19iYW5rX29mX2FtZXJpY2EEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA2Jlcm5hbmtldGFyZw--

[DebbieCDC]

1. BoA stinks to the high heavens

I hope all their directors plus Bernanke and Paulson go down in flames

Serve the greedy fuckers right.

[Frisbee]

2. Couldn't agree more....

I would LOVE for this to somehow include O. Temple Sloan Jr., who is on the board of BoA and is a piece of crap if there ever was one.

http://www.muckety.com/O-Temple-Sloan-Jr/4619.muckety?b...

BTW, General Parts = Carquest.

[INdemo]

7. I don't believe Geithner and Summers are squeaky clean

I have never heard Summers answer a real question..And Geithner did not act on the CEO's bonuses..........
They are both Wall ST insiders..

[truedelphi]

8. The bonuses are "only" a couple of hundred million

It is the continual drain that the Federal Reserve and Treasury are behind that is going to implode this economy even further.

The Fed writes out accounts for about a trillion bucks every other month or so, to buy the Treasury bonds no one else wants.

All told we have spent 11 trillion bucks propping up the Wall Street insiders since August of 2008.

That is enough money to pay the outstanding mortgage payments for every mortgage holder in this country.

[avaistheone1]

5. I remember when the head of B of A was testifying before Congress.

He acted as though he was as pure as Mother Teresa. I had a feeling he was another wolf in sheep's clothing.

[sarcasmo]

3. Expose the Greed.

[lmarcotty]

4. I was horrified -

when B of A bought Countrywide, which was the mortgage servicing company for my mortgage. Only the mortgage gods know who actually owns the mortgage itself - I thought it was Countrywide until I learned more about industry (thank you, This American Life). I keep waiting for something bad to happen, like getting a letter saying, "We've unilaterally decided to up your interest rate from 5.25% to 18.5% and backdate it to 2002; oops, you're in default, we're foreclosing on you, but when you're out we'll decide we don't want to pay maintenance, taxes and insurance on the property so we'll never take the title, and then you'll still be on the hook for the taxes and penalties for allowing the property to become derelict.... Welcome to Bank of America!"

And they would do this because short-sighted "short term profit always outweighs long term idiocy" is their 1 year business plan, their 5 year plan, their 10 year plan - shoot, it's their total existence plan! Stupid AND criminal - that's MY mortgage servicer!

[earcandle]

6. Good luck.

[lib2DaBone]

9. If Obama was smart.. he'd get rid of the FED forever!

The Federal Reserve (Which is neither Federal or Reserve) will consume every last drop of blood from the United States.

The Federal Reserve is no mnore FEDERAL than Federal Express... Federal Pizza or Federal Air Conditioning and Cooling....

Is every person in America flat-out sound asleep or just stupid?

[MindMatter]

10. He just did the OPPOSITE

His proposal puts the FED in charge of essentially ALL financial regulation. And this is not even a government agency -- it is a banker's club. Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse, this is horrible. In so many ways, Obama is selling out. Such a disappointment.

[aquart]

11. Uh huh.