Both CEO's need to be fired Lewis /Thain plus Geithner

Weeks ago I wrote that Lewis was a complete moron since he completely overpaid the deal - he explained it with once in a life time occasion. That was a lie or he is one of the most stupid CEO's ever. The deal was also enforced by Paulson and Geithner as Merrill was the next Lehman very clearly with 55 bil in loses so far Mer blow away all capital and O'neil needs to be prosecuted for that but he walked away with a 180 mil package - its amazing how this kind of thieves get away with even perks as they destroy taxpayers and stockholders money in such a stupid way. The same responsibility is on Geithner starting as the supervising entity and ending with forcing the deal. For Obama I can add cheap is talk lets see some actions- hiring Geithner is no option at all.
No one is in control of the things going on neither in the banks nor outside at the supervising entities. Is it a pathetic charade where they just lie knowing better - I am not sure yet which version applies to make more sense but the bottom line is they are running this world into the ground and still have their smeary snake oil salesman smiles in their faces. Most annoying in that respect has become Bernanke this days, about to beat President Bush. Trichet was also kind of annoying with his pathetic 50 BP cut today and his upbeat mood - after the ECB recently published an upbeat prognosis for 2nd half 2009 - which is deadwrong. He carries part of the responsibility for this mess as they did not supervise European banks properly. The boys who run the Titanic in the iceberg are still in command - my common sense says they need to be taken out of charge. This is the most amazing part in a regular job if you would make a minor mistake they would have fired you already. Its a weird a cynical situation that all the masters of disaster are still in their chairs respectively are replaced by the same breed as most choices of Obama show. The sad thing is that the stars show it seems inevitably the big disaster to come and no already goatherd evidence can make rational change of course as the captain of the titanic seems still to believe its unsinkable.

Excerpt

Bank of America Drops as Merrill May Need U.S. Aid (Update1)

By David Mildenberg

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, plunged as much as 28 percent in New York trading on concern the company needs more government aid to absorb losses from the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

The lender slid $2.26 to $7.94 at 10:52 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Bank of America told regulators in December it might abandon the takeover because of Merrill's worse-than-expected results, and the bank is in talks to get more U.S. aid, said three people familiar with the matter.

The government insisted the Merrill deal proceed because its collapse would renew turmoil in the financial system, said the people, who declined to be identified because talks are private. Details may be disclosed on Jan. 20, when the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank could post its first quarterly loss in 17 years after buying Merrill Lynch and home lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

``It suggests that the Merrill acquisition was more dangerous than they thought,'' said Kevin Kruszenski, director of equity trading at Keybanc Capital Markets in Cleveland.

Speculation that more of the nation's biggest banks will need another dose of federal money helped send Citigroup Inc. down as much as 26 percent, and Wells Fargo & Co. declined 13 percent. Bank of America's shares declined 30 percent through yesterday since Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis told employees on Jan. 6 that 2008 performance may miss company expectations.

Overreached?

``Even with help from the government, we think Bank of America's tangible equity levels are low relative to peers and that it will need to cut its dividend and/or raise equity capital in the coming months,'' Standard & Poor's Corp. equity analyst Stuart Plesser said in a research note today. He rates the bank ``sell.''