This Gets Me Steaming Mad…

Have you heard or seen the story going around about Bank of America's (BOA) purchase of Merrill Lynch (Merrill)? Oh man! This is huge!

BOA's CEO, Ken Lewis testified this week and said that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Department chief Henry Paulson pressured Bank of America to not discuss its increasingly troubled plan to buy Merrill Lynch. -- a deal that later triggered a government bailout of BOA.

Now, all my licenses in the brokerage business tell me that that's a HUGE no-no! A company is supposed to alert their shareholders of any materially significant financial hits. If I were a shareholder of BOA, I would be steaming mad right now! As a market participant it still ticks me off!

Now, here's the latest from the Wall Street Journal this morning...

"The Federal Reserve didn't advise Bank of America or CEO Ken Lewis "on any questions of disclosure," a spokeswoman for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said."

Oh great! Now we have a "he said - no he didn't" scenario! That's their plan folks. Attempt to confuse the masses, throw up smoke screens, and maybe it all goes away. Well, not on my watch! We need to know who's telling the truth.

And one of the things they will use to direct everyone's attention away from this awful thing, is...Drum roll please.............. The Stress Tests!

That's right! They are supposed to be talked about today. I still hold to my beliefs that we won't really be told the truth about these 19 largest banks. I can only hope to be wrong!

That's it for today... And for me until next week! I'm very excited about going to Bermuda, although it looks like the good folks at The Sovereign Society are going to keep me busy!

Cardinals sweep the Mets! Wow! That has a great sound to it. The Cubs come to town tonight, it sure would be sweet to sweep them too. But that's getting greedy, I would be giddy with two of three! Tomorrow is the draft for the NFL, the Rams have the second pick. Memo to the Rams: Don't blow it! Okay time to get out of here…

Hope all's well with everyone, and you have a Fantastico Friday!
Chuck Butler