Reply #33: Moynihan Tries to Keep BofA Intact as Mortgages Crumble

[Demeter]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-08/moynihan-tries-to-keep-bank-of-america-intact-as-mortgage-loans-fall-apart.html

...Announced on Aug. 25, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett’s purchase of $5 billion in BofA preferred stock -- on typical only-for-Warren terms, including a $300 million annual dividend --- allowed the bank to edge back from the abyss, much as Buffett’s $5 billion vote of confidence arrested a run on Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s stock in 2008.

On Sept. 6, only hours after he sat for an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, BofA Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan grabbed attention again by reshuffling his management ranks, elevating a pair of new co-chief operating officers and ousting Sallie Krawcheck, the high-profile head of wealth management. After all the excitement, the bank’s shares were up 19 percent from their nadir.

For now, Bank of America will not go the way of Lehman or Bear. It has $400 billion in cash and liquid investments and, more important, with $2.3 trillion in assets, it exemplifies the sorry concept of “too big to fail.” No matter what anyone says to the contrary, the U.S. government cannot afford to allow a financial institution of that size to go down and drag the rest of the country with it.

BofA’s difficulties are too complex, however, to be solved by Buffett swashbuckling, executive replacements, or the retention of a really sharp lawyer. America’s biggest bank is inextricably intertwined with a still-debilitated U.S. housing market and an unemployment rate stuck painfully above 9 percent.

GOOD SUMMARY OF BOA AND ITS PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS