email: tips@dealbreaker.com
text: (646) 820-4847
call: (212) 334-1871
all tips are anonymous
HT: 1-2
This press release (invite?) just hit our inbox:
Tens of Thousands of Taxpayers to Protest at 100s of Bank of America Branches Nationwide
SEIU, MoveOn.org and other Community Groups to Collect 20,000+ ‘Taxpayer Proxies’ to Call for Ousting of CEO Ken Lewis, Reform of Predatory Banking Practices, Voice for Bank Workers
100s of Actions Include DC, LA, San Francisco, NY, Chicago, Pittsburgh & Philadelphia
WASHINGTON, DC -Fueled by mounting frustration over an economic system that rewards corporate executives for their bad decisions while working people struggle to stay afloat, tens of thousands of taxpayers will protest at Bank of America branches across the country on April 28th in advance of Bank of America’s Annual Shareholder Meeting.
After accepting $45 billion in bailout funds, taxpayers are one of the largest shareholders of Bank of America. They will join bank employees, consumers and activists to demand that the bank fire CEO Ken Lewis and commit to financial reform that puts consumers and workers ahead of profits.
Neil Barofsky, the special government inspector general assigned to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said Thursday he will be issuing audits of various bailout transactions, including government assistance provided to Bank of America in connection with its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. He said his office is also conducting an investigation involving Bank of America.
“I would caution anyone from leaping to too many conclusions about what Secretary Paulson or Chairman Bernanke said until we’ve looked at all the facts and reported on them,” Barofsky, who said he witnessed Lewis’ testimony, told the economic panel. “The conclusion that one may draw that it’s black and white that there was an order from the United States government not to disclose this information, I don’t think it’s as crystal clear.“
BofA’s Lewis: Fed urged quiet on Merrill [AP]
Earlier: Cuomo Corroborates Lewis’s Story
The Deal spoke this morning with some fractional owners of Bank of Amerillwide, on the topic of Ken Lewis never telling them about the metric asston of losses Merrill was about to report, prior to acquiring the company, because Paulson or Bernanke or Pernanke threatened him. Among the responses: “Brute!” “Pig” “Pussy!” “Lying sack of shit!” “Worthless backpack of dicks!” “Guy whose clothes are about to be thrown out the window and whose key will no longer work once I have the locks changed!” No, not really (though they haven’t spoken to everyone and surely that’s what at least a few people, Mrs. Lewis included, are thinking). Some actual thoughts on the matter:
“He violated his duty to protect shareholders in order to protect himself, and now shareholders are shouldering the burden of those consequences,” CtW Investment Group’s Michael Garland told Dealscape.
“Seems like Ken Lewis has changed his story. Previously Mr. Lewis has stated unambiguously that Bank of America was not aware of the losses at Merrill Lynch until after the Dec. 5 shareholder vote. Now he states differently. I think this will certainly strengthen our lawsuit,” Jonathan Finger of Finger Interests Number One Ltd. told Dealscape.
Portfolio says yes! According to the mag, which has ranked the Top 20 Worst CEOs, The Gorilla is (was) a worse CEO than Angelo Mozilo (2), Ken Lay (3), Jimmy Cayne (4), Martin Sullivan (15), Stan O’Neal (18), and Vikram Pandit (20). Take a gander and tell us if you think these rankings are accurate, and if anyone’s missing (Ken Lewis? Chuck Prince? Not saying, just saying).
Remember a million years ago (real time: back in October), when Playboy put the call out for “Women of Wall Street” to help tackle the financial crisis by taking their clothes off? The feature was supposed to run in the February issue, but that came and went with nary a peep of financial services T&A. We assumed it was ’cause no one in the field was willing to get naked, despite the fact that it was for the good of the economy. Apparently, not so much! The spank rag’s May issue features the promised Wall Street spread. I’d say what follows is probably NSFW,* unless you happen to work at SAC, in which case consider this a guide to career advancement. Later today we’ll post the vintage (August 1989) WoWS feature, for comparison’s sake.
*Though we did cover the most intimate areas with a familiar face.
Competition between stress tests is heating up even as we type this entry. Not content to wait for indeterminate periods on sketchy results of questionable value, some aspiring outsourced regulators have designed their own stress tests. Early results are as daunting as their methodologies are mysterious and, of course, the most dramatic predictions tend to draw the most headlines. Like those on Dealbreaker, for instance. To wit:
U.S. banks may need another $1 trillion in capital to cushion losses as unemployment rises and borrowers fall behind on payments, KBW Inc. analysts led by Frederick Cannon said today.
The estimate is based on the analysts’ own “stress test” of the strength of top U.S. lenders, Cannon wrote. The government is also evaluating the ability of banks to withstand a deepening recession. Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. lender by assets, may be forced by the government to accept additional aid by converting preferred shares into common stock, Cannon said.
Banks May Need $1 Trillion After U.S. Tests, KBW Says [Bloomberg]
Supposedly Paulson did the dirty work, but it was at the behest of Bernanke (this morning a government official seemingly got the Beard off on a technicality, telling Steve Liesman that the Fed chairman never *directly* told Ken Lewis to keep quiet about the Merrill losses).
Sweet news for most chocolate lovers, and we count ourselves amongst these- though our tendency to turn our nose up at confections not hailing from Central Europe has been known to cause us trouble in Pennsylvania- Hershey “Bringing sweet moments of Hershey happiness to the world every day” Co. pleasantly surprised anyone watching and did so months after Valentine’s Day.
Chocolate maker Hershey Co posted a higher-than-expected rise in quarterly profit, helped by price increases and market share gains.
The maker of Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups also stood by its forecast calling for earnings per share to increase this year, but for the gain to be less than the company’s long-term goal of 6 percent to 8 percent.
Hershey’s higher profit beats estimate [Reuters]
Related: Fat Gits Causing Global Warming [GlossyNews.com]
CNBC’s Steve Liesman reports a government official denies that the Federal Reserve chairman ever told Ken Lewis not to disclose the Merrill losses prior to the deal going through. Which is all well and good and nice to hear but I think we all knew the soft-spoken professor was not the one shoving Lewis in meat locker and threatening in, no uncertain terms, bodily harm to his person if he failed to zip the lip. That would be a job best left to a slightly more intimidating figure.
Not sure there’s anything left to say but surely you people can come up with something (is Arizona State really worthy of spot number 29?). As previously mentioned, the list of the Top 20 b-schools we printed last week was unofficial, having been (unintentionally?) flashed in a US News video about law schools. Now they’re out for real, and save for slots 19 and 20 (Georgetown and UNC/University of Southern California, respectively), which couldn’t be made out at the time, the two are identical.
20. University of Southern California
20. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
19. Georgetown
18. Texas
17. Cornell
15. UVA
15. Carnegie Mellon
14. UCLA
13. Michigan
12. Duke
11. NYU
