What is the word or expectation that BAC will absorb CFC's debt? Could this lead to price discovery on mortgage assets? Will all the CFC bank locations close?
Does BofA have to take a stand on the issue as to whether they will honour CFC's debt before they conclude the take-over? Or is the issue about whether CFC will default on it's debt something that can drag out for a long while after July 1?
I have banked at Bank of America for many years now.
From a customer point of view, I have always found it to be a well managed company. For a company its size, I really don't know how they do it. Their clerks and officers are always helpful and attentitive.
I don't know what the current crisis portends for BofA, but something tells me that they will be one of the survivors.
I wish them the best of luck in the current downturn.
BAC continues to refuse to confirm that it will stand behind the CFC bond holders and other creditors
i can hardly believe the CFC creditors haven't torpedoed this deal, much less the BAC stakeholders. so much for corporate stewardship, i suppose -- or perhaps the fed has simply intimidated everyone into silence.
"Why don't you go produce them. (see prev. thread)"
Anonymouse | 06.20.08 - 9:54 am
What, its not enough to be buying their bonds via my high yield index mutual fund?
Does BofA have to take a stand on the issue as to whether they will honour CFC's debt before they conclude the take-over? Or is the issue about whether CFC will default on it's debt something that can drag out for a long while after July 1?
there's been lots of speculation that BAC would drive CFC's subsidiary bank to the FDIC before consummating to get around some of these issues (from BAC's perspective). i'm really quite surprised that BAC is going to go ahead before that happens.
it's not sensible banking, that's for sure. maybe the fed has taken a first-loss position, as it did with JPM?
I have banked at Bank of America for many years now.
For a contra view...
I once banked at NCNB (which became BoA). After I moved from Tampa, there was one NCNB branch 7 miles away, one at 16 miles and one at 19 miles. When BoA took over, they closed two of three and left me only one choice (at an uncomfortable distance), so I moved to another bank. Since all that happened, many of the local banks have built new branches and expanded their presence.
It is still not clear to me why BoA/NCNB decided to pull back, but they clearly did not see the same market type that the local and regional banks saw.
There's obvious a few side deals that are on the verge of blowing up of else there'd be no reason for the timeline. BAC does the deal, strips the assets, goes to the window with a fist full of paper exchnged for what goes for real money these days and then screws the CFC bondholders who get the bones. The bank and servicing portfolio go to BAC and the bondholders get half a million sq ft of Ventura County office space, some obligated long term leases.
Fitch Ratings-New York-20 June 2008: Last month's interest shortfalls on certain Subprime transactions serviced by Ocwen Financial Corp. (Ocwen) are a subject that Fitch Ratings has been carefully tracking for the last several days. Fitch has been involved in ongoing discussions with senior management for Ocwen and Wells Fargo's trustee operations in order to determine the immediate cause and probability of continuation of the conditions which lead to the interest payment shortfalls.
In these deals, Ocwen reported interest payments to senior note holders that were in an amount less than would have been expected under the structure of the deals.
'In these discussions, it was determined that Ocwen had materially increased its modification program activity and many modifications involved principal reductions in addition to interest rate reduction and/or forgiveness of other payment and cost amounts,' said Managing Director Diane Pendley. April was the first month in which a sizable number of mods were reported through to the trustee for the May distribution. Ocwen indicated that it continued to report monthly activities on these transactions as in prior months.
If you knew that Israel was going to attack Iran, where would you put your money? Gold, oil futures, treasuries, euros, make no changes?
Anonymous | 06.19.08 - 9:37 pm | #
AP Oil rebounds on word Israel practiced Iran attack
Friday June 20, 9:23 am ET
By John Wilen, AP Business Writer Oil prices bounce back after Pentagon says Israeli exercises were demonstration to Iran
You've made it to the policy bulletpoints, CR! Congrats! Too bad there's no way to report that to the advertisers, huh? You'd be the web's number one site for contractor mindspace ads. =)
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- High-net worth individuals, those coveted financial-services customers with at least $2 million to invest, are shifting assets from brokerages and large global banks to smaller, more conservative alternatives.
Their clerks and officers are always helpful and attentitive.
My experience was that the "clerks and officers" didn't know what they were doing (treated drafts as if they were checks) and came one week and were gone the next so if you thought you were a known customer, pretty soon nobody in the bank had ever seen you. I moved to the Northern Trust where employees don't come and go every month and you can sit down in a chair even to cash a check. LOL.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil said on Friday it was illogical and irrational to ask the oil cartel to increase output so as to take the pressure off soaring prices, the Algerie Presse Service (APS) news agency reported.
You know that feeling when you're eating something and you just know deep down that it's probably going to come up later. But because you're at a dinner party, you just chew and swallow due to decorum. All the while cursing the awful caterers who you know left that cream sauce out just a little too long.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil said on Friday it was illogical and irrational to ask the oil cartel to increase output so as to take the pressure off soaring prices, the Algerie Presse Service (APS) news agency reported.
"But because you're at a dinner party, you just chew and swallow due to decorum. All the while cursing the awful caterers who you know left that cream sauce out just a little too long."
That is the sign of a suck ass and a whore. Spit the shit on the plate and yell that taste like shit! That is honesty and freedom, might not win a lot of friends but tough.
I suppose it's just a coincidence that I read in Bloomberg that the special Fed lending facilities would remain open until September.
Yep, nothing to do with this deal. Nosiree, Bob.
By the way, does any one expect the market to end down on quadruple-witch day? There is always some "suprise that comes out between 11am and 230pm that makes it shoot up 200 points by the end of the day.
B of A managed to lose their reputation as perennial fckups only when more inept firms upstaged them. Now B of A can regain their rightful place as last among equals.
From a customer point of view, I have always found it to be a well managed company. For a company its size, I really don't know how they do it. Their clerks and officers are always helpful and attentitive.
Heh...well, I'm down south maself, but I haven't banked at a commercial bank in over a decade - when the last regional I had an account at was absorbed, I switched exclusively to my Credit Union.
Moreover, I have always heard just the opposite about BAC - neverending horror stories about average retail customers dealing with BAC. I spent a brief time working in the Credit Card department for a small regional bank, and I took to hear the lesson: be a big fish in a small pond.
Personally, since the unpleasant discovery that my personal mortgage servicing was sold to CW (and boy oh boy am I glad I'm one of those no-impounds guys!), I'm glad this buyout will go through. That way the servicing book - probably CW's only remaining asset of any value - will remain intact and I don't have to worry as much about getting bounced around all over the place, with "lost payments", etc. On this last point, has anyone here ever had any issues with direct electronic transfers when a servicer changes/takes over? Perhaps it's time to cancel my direct payment.
[It's going to be an interesting culture clash. I wonder if they'll have new wristbands. From "Protect this house" to "sell this house"]
I've had much more experience with CW on the servicing side, but BOA seems much more organized and "able-bodied" in their Loss Mit dept than CW would ever hope to be. Hopefully, some of that will rub off.
[since the unpleasant discovery that my personal mortgage servicing was sold to CW (and boy oh boy am I glad I'm one of those no-impounds guys!), I'm glad this buyout will go through.]
Yeah... as long as you're current, no problem... and I've heard many, many anecdotes re: their (mis)management of escrow accounts.
[has anyone here ever had any issues with direct electronic transfers when a servicer changes/takes over? Perhaps it's time to cancel my direct payment]
Best to call the new servicer right away. If you don't already have an account number, find out how soon you should have one, keep calling until you do. Have them check your account to make sure that it's set up properly, and WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK for the first 60 days.
It's always a good idea to give yourself a Quicken/Money reminder to check and make sure that the payments gone through... worked with a retired guy once who came to find that he had a year's worth of ACH payments that hadn't been collected by his servicer... he didn't open a lot of his mail because everything was on "auto-pilot."
If we have bank regulation and investigative justice, BOA will either burn every cent placed in this speculation, or we will find that BAC has attempted to hide as much of the losses as possible, and this, in a fair and just world, BOA will re-state EPS at some point within about 2 years. CFC is the worst of the worst and BOA is amazingly stupid to have taken this rat poison!
CFC is the worst of the worst and BOA is amazingly stupid to have taken this rat poison!
They don't call it a shotgun wedding 'cause the pregnant lady's guardian is putting garlands of flowers around your neck. I think it so notable that this went through that I suspect it was a "this or twenty hard ones" situation for some people. Didn't BoA provide much of CW's warehouse credit?
I know if someone came to me and told me to bet my luck eating this spoiled cream sauce against a federal prosecutor with a raging erection finding something in 8 years of my emails re: "we have a CMO roll-out schedule, make some loans already" I would be like "mmm, spoiled cream sauce."
I've never had a single thing to do with the industry, I just have better things to do with my life than getting framed in federal court. Even if you win, you lose. How much more agreeable would you be for a big dish of that cream sauce, when that was what you had actually done for all those years.
Best to call the new servicer right away. If you don't already have an account number, find out how soon you should have one, keep calling until you do. Have them check your account to make sure that it's set up properly, and WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK for the first 60 days.
Well, this is the problem; my lender is eLoan - BPPR (Banco Popular Puerto Rico, IIRC) - and CW is the servicer. I have no notice of a new servicer, and I am on auto-pilot via the ACH with CW.
I suppose I can keep watching the courthouse for a change of servicer filing, but I had the impression that BAC would simply take over CW servicing. I have heard rumors of horror-stories where the servicing got sold and the borrower isn't notified - sometimes until foreclosure starts. I'm not sure being an ACH payer makes any difference here - as a practical matter - getting current will require coming up with the missing payments and penalties, and recovering the 'old payments' will be a long legal battle.
I really don't fear the hassle too much, so long as I can do something like take the new servicer to court for a 'technicality' like not notifying me they were my new servicer - in a timely fashion. That might provide the necessary leverage to push back on any fees, etc.
I am current - of course! - and I deliberately paid a .125 point higher rate in exchange for no impounds (I'm an old-fashioned 80/20 guy). I have no re-fi plans, but if I do, I will pay the extra .125 to be assured my loan & servicing remains with a local institution.
The deal will go through no matter what. B of A, JPM and BlackRock [and maybe a few other players] have all made some kind of deal with the devil (ie the FED). kind of like when you go take a dump and stink up the wife's bathroom so you don't have to smell it, and then she returns the favor at a later time.
On another note, I have a buddy who was shot in the leg during a bank robbery in a B of A branch a few years back. I don't think he was a satisfied customer.
I know if someone came to me and told me to bet my luck eating this spoiled cream sauce against a federal prosecutor with a raging erection finding something in 8 years of my emails re: "we have a CMO roll-out schedule, make some loans already" I would be like "mmm, spoiled cream sauce."
Now there's a mental picture with some staying power.
Good buying point. Once the Chris and Barney Show gets done tailoring its bailout, BofA will smell like roses, the Federal guvment will swallow Countrywide's flavored syrup and everyone will vote Democratic ever more.
Well, maybe a hundred shares. Got to bet with the Senate on this one, but not betting the house either.
It's clear from the comments here that this deal just doesn't make sense.
Either we are missing something, or the BAC boys are. Since they are privy to more information then us, I guess the question is 'Are they really that dumb?'
First?
It was renegotiated -- in BoA's stock price.
This is what I call "win-win"
What is the word or expectation that BAC will absorb CFC's debt? Could this lead to price discovery on mortgage assets? Will all the CFC bank locations close?
Too big to fail, baby, too big to fail.
Does BofA have to take a stand on the issue as to whether they will honour CFC's debt before they conclude the take-over? Or is the issue about whether CFC will default on it's debt something that can drag out for a long while after July 1?
I have banked at Bank of America for many years now.
From a customer point of view, I have always found it to be a well managed company. For a company its size, I really don't know how they do it. Their clerks and officers are always helpful and attentitive.
I don't know what the current crisis portends for BofA, but something tells me that they will be one of the survivors.
I wish them the best of luck in the current downturn.
Why it was not re-negotiated is a valid question. Alot of angry BofA shareholders out there.
OT, I got to admit that I did not see today's market coming. I thought it would be a bull day.
jin,
Didn't get the memo?
I'll believe it when I see it.
jin, these days who knows what Mr Market is going to throw up?
But ya, if it was UP at the open, I'd be out for good. Period.
Another Ego driven deal.Dumbshits.
Its all priced in!!!
What is the word or expectation that BAC will absorb CFC's debt?
How much BoA market cap has Ken Lewis destroyed with this deal? Its like he never saw what Golden West did to Wachovia?
I'm out today buying more mason jars.
w9 -- some answers may be in the institutional risk analytics writeup
.
BAC continues to refuse to confirm that it will stand behind the CFC bond holders and other creditors
i can hardly believe the CFC creditors haven't torpedoed this deal, much less the BAC stakeholders. so much for corporate stewardship, i suppose -- or perhaps the fed has simply intimidated everyone into silence.
Hangtown writes:
I'm out today buying more mason jars.
Why don't you go produce them. (see prev. thread)
"Why don't you go produce them. (see prev. thread)"
Anonymouse | 06.20.08 - 9:54 am
What, its not enough to be buying their bonds via my high yield index mutual fund?
Does BofA have to take a stand on the issue as to whether they will honour CFC's debt before they conclude the take-over? Or is the issue about whether CFC will default on it's debt something that can drag out for a long while after July 1?
there's been lots of speculation that BAC would drive CFC's subsidiary bank to the FDIC before consummating to get around some of these issues (from BAC's perspective). i'm really quite surprised that BAC is going to go ahead before that happens.
it's not sensible banking, that's for sure. maybe the fed has taken a first-loss position, as it did with JPM?
Baaaaaailllllllloooottttt!
Happy quadruple witching friday.
Next week should be fun.
I think the word of 2008 should be complacency.
I have banked at Bank of America for many years now.
For a contra view...
I once banked at NCNB (which became BoA). After I moved from Tampa, there was one NCNB branch 7 miles away, one at 16 miles and one at 19 miles. When BoA took over, they closed two of three and left me only one choice (at an uncomfortable distance), so I moved to another bank. Since all that happened, many of the local banks have built new branches and expanded their presence.
It is still not clear to me why BoA/NCNB decided to pull back, but they clearly did not see the same market type that the local and regional banks saw.
There's obvious a few side deals that are on the verge of blowing up of else there'd be no reason for the timeline. BAC does the deal, strips the assets, goes to the window with a fist full of paper exchnged for what goes for real money these days and then screws the CFC bondholders who get the bones. The bank and servicing portfolio go to BAC and the bondholders get half a million sq ft of Ventura County office space, some obligated long term leases.
As a long time customer of BOA, I will withdraw any bussiness if this deal goes through.
I am not a happy customer.
In general the financial leadership in thsi country CANNOT be trusted.
Ben is bringing the shotgun and Hank is giving the bride away.
Anonymouse - I like "contained"
OT from Fitch:
Fitch Ratings-New York-20 June 2008: Last month's interest shortfalls on certain Subprime transactions serviced by Ocwen Financial Corp. (Ocwen) are a subject that Fitch Ratings has been carefully tracking for the last several days. Fitch has been involved in ongoing discussions with senior management for Ocwen and Wells Fargo's trustee operations in order to determine the immediate cause and probability of continuation of the conditions which lead to the interest payment shortfalls.
In these deals, Ocwen reported interest payments to senior note holders that were in an amount less than would have been expected under the structure of the deals.
'In these discussions, it was determined that Ocwen had materially increased its modification program activity and many modifications involved principal reductions in addition to interest rate reduction and/or forgiveness of other payment and cost amounts,' said Managing Director Diane Pendley. April was the first month in which a sizable number of mods were reported through to the trustee for the May distribution. Ocwen indicated that it continued to report monthly activities on these transactions as in prior months.
http://fitchratings.com/corporate/events/press_releases_detail.cfm?pr_id=424336&origin=home
11850 is support, I don't expect the March or January lows in the DOW to be tested today - FWIW.
Two Items From Last Night:
HaloScan.com - Comments
Anonymous writes:
Question for the group:
If you knew that Israel was going to attack Iran, where would you put your money? Gold, oil futures, treasuries, euros, make no changes?
Anonymous | 06.19.08 - 9:37 pm | #
Expired
AP
Oil rebounds on word Israel practiced Iran attack
Friday June 20, 9:23 am ET
By John Wilen, AP Business Writer
Oil prices bounce back after Pentagon says Israeli exercises were demonstration to Iran
You've made it to the policy bulletpoints, CR! Congrats! Too bad there's no way to report that to the advertisers, huh? You'd be the web's number one site for contractor mindspace ads. =)
Banks are down but wait till the attempt at a short squeeze falls apart on the banks today.
Wealthy Investors Shift Funds From Global Banks to Reduce Risks
Wealthy Investors Shift Funds From Global Banks to Reduce Risks - Bloomberg.com
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- High-net worth individuals, those coveted financial-services customers with at least $2 million to invest, are shifting assets from brokerages and large global banks to smaller, more conservative alternatives.
Something interesting to look out for.
byzantine_ruins writes:
Oil rebounds on word Israel practiced Iran attack
Funny, gold is up too.
fade Tech! IBM
Their clerks and officers are always helpful and attentitive.
My experience was that the "clerks and officers" didn't know what they were doing (treated drafts as if they were checks) and came one week and were gone the next so if you thought you were a known customer, pretty soon nobody in the bank had ever seen you. I moved to the Northern Trust where employees don't come and go every month and you can sit down in a chair even to cash a check. LOL.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil said on Friday it was illogical and irrational to ask the oil cartel to increase output so as to take the pressure off soaring prices, the Algerie Presse Service (APS) news agency reported.
ruuhhh rohhhh
You know that feeling when you're eating something and you just know deep down that it's probably going to come up later. But because you're at a dinner party, you just chew and swallow due to decorum. All the while cursing the awful caterers who you know left that cream sauce out just a little too long.
This is that feeling.
twisted,
illogical due to the fact that they are basically running flat out atm...
I think the market is renegotiating the deal, in that BofAs stock is falling, and thus the value of the deal.
This is one of those bone-head decisions CEOs make and then can't back out of because of the cost to their ego.
twisted writes:
OPEC president Chakib Khelil said on Friday it was illogical and irrational to ask the oil cartel to increase output so as to take the pressure off soaring prices, the Algerie Presse Service (APS) news agency reported.
Cause they don't have anymore output.
Sorry, grizz, for repeating your observation.
BB - There goes that "correction"
In war all bets are off.
"But because you're at a dinner party, you just chew and swallow due to decorum. All the while cursing the awful caterers who you know left that cream sauce out just a little too long."
That is the sign of a suck ass and a whore. Spit the shit on the plate and yell that taste like shit! That is honesty and freedom, might not win a lot of friends but tough.
Interesting Times writes:
BB - There goes that "correction"
Heh, the day is still young, gold is falling already.
I'll concede at the end of the day
Anonymous | 10:30 am, writes: Spit the shit on the plate and yell that taste like shit!
You've been to Jas Jain's dinner party too?
Anonymous: yuckily put. Sober up already.
Clear.... D-fib...Now!
Next BofA will buy Chrysler.
CNBC talking heads are now talking about the "long term" long trade.
Oh-uh.
BAC is going to end up being a spitter instead.
but because you're at a dinner party, you just chew and swallow due to decorum.
that about sums it up. CFC is one hellacious piece of gristle, tho.
If I were Lewis, I'd have tried for some sort of surreptitious expulsion into the nearest napkin.
Again...again...again...D-fib...NOW
It's going to be an interesting culture clash. I wonder if they'll have new wristbands. From "Protect this house" to "sell this house"
"If I were Lewis, I'd have tried for some sort of surreptitious expulsion into the nearest napkin.
Shnaps"
You mean the Fed? I think that was the plan, but I don't know if they can find a napkin quick enough. Oops, here come the runs.
I suppose it's just a coincidence that I read in Bloomberg that the special Fed lending facilities would remain open until September.
Yep, nothing to do with this deal. Nosiree, Bob.
By the way, does any one expect the market to end down on quadruple-witch day? There is always some "suprise that comes out between 11am and 230pm that makes it shoot up 200 points by the end of the day.
B of A managed to lose their reputation as perennial fckups only when more inept firms upstaged them. Now B of A can regain their rightful place as last among equals.
i can hardly believe the CFC creditors haven't torpedoed this deal
Maybe they're planning on legal action. I don't know how much worse off they'll be anyway - it's not as if CW can pay them back.
DownSouth writes...
From a customer point of view, I have always found it to be a well managed company. For a company its size, I really don't know how they do it. Their clerks and officers are always helpful and attentitive.
Heh...well, I'm down south maself, but I haven't banked at a commercial bank in over a decade - when the last regional I had an account at was absorbed, I switched exclusively to my Credit Union.
Moreover, I have always heard just the opposite about BAC - neverending horror stories about average retail customers dealing with BAC. I spent a brief time working in the Credit Card department for a small regional bank, and I took to hear the lesson: be a big fish in a small pond.
Personally, since the unpleasant discovery that my personal mortgage servicing was sold to CW (and boy oh boy am I glad I'm one of those no-impounds guys!), I'm glad this buyout will go through. That way the servicing book - probably CW's only remaining asset of any value - will remain intact and I don't have to worry as much about getting bounced around all over the place, with "lost payments", etc. On this last point, has anyone here ever had any issues with direct electronic transfers when a servicer changes/takes over? Perhaps it's time to cancel my direct payment.
[It's going to be an interesting culture clash. I wonder if they'll have new wristbands. From "Protect this house" to "sell this house"]
I've had much more experience with CW on the servicing side, but BOA seems much more organized and "able-bodied" in their Loss Mit dept than CW would ever hope to be. Hopefully, some of that will rub off.
[since the unpleasant discovery that my personal mortgage servicing was sold to CW (and boy oh boy am I glad I'm one of those no-impounds guys!), I'm glad this buyout will go through.]
Yeah... as long as you're current, no problem... and I've heard many, many anecdotes re: their (mis)management of escrow accounts.
[has anyone here ever had any issues with direct electronic transfers when a servicer changes/takes over? Perhaps it's time to cancel my direct payment]
Best to call the new servicer right away. If you don't already have an account number, find out how soon you should have one, keep calling until you do. Have them check your account to make sure that it's set up properly, and WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK for the first 60 days.
It's always a good idea to give yourself a Quicken/Money reminder to check and make sure that the payments gone through... worked with a retired guy once who came to find that he had a year's worth of ACH payments that hadn't been collected by his servicer... he didn't open a lot of his mail because everything was on "auto-pilot."
If we have bank regulation and investigative justice, BOA will either burn every cent placed in this speculation, or we will find that BAC has attempted to hide as much of the losses as possible, and this, in a fair and just world, BOA will re-state EPS at some point within about 2 years. CFC is the worst of the worst and BOA is amazingly stupid to have taken this rat poison!
CFC is the worst of the worst and BOA is amazingly stupid to have taken this rat poison!
They don't call it a shotgun wedding 'cause the pregnant lady's guardian is putting garlands of flowers around your neck. I think it so notable that this went through that I suspect it was a "this or twenty hard ones" situation for some people. Didn't BoA provide much of CW's warehouse credit?
I know if someone came to me and told me to bet my luck eating this spoiled cream sauce against a federal prosecutor with a raging erection finding something in 8 years of my emails re: "we have a CMO roll-out schedule, make some loans already" I would be like "mmm, spoiled cream sauce."
I've never had a single thing to do with the industry, I just have better things to do with my life than getting framed in federal court. Even if you win, you lose. How much more agreeable would you be for a big dish of that cream sauce, when that was what you had actually done for all those years.
Best to call the new servicer right away. If you don't already have an account number, find out how soon you should have one, keep calling until you do. Have them check your account to make sure that it's set up properly, and WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK for the first 60 days.
Well, this is the problem; my lender is eLoan - BPPR (Banco Popular Puerto Rico, IIRC) - and CW is the servicer. I have no notice of a new servicer, and I am on auto-pilot via the ACH with CW.
I suppose I can keep watching the courthouse for a change of servicer filing, but I had the impression that BAC would simply take over CW servicing. I have heard rumors of horror-stories where the servicing got sold and the borrower isn't notified - sometimes until foreclosure starts. I'm not sure being an ACH payer makes any difference here - as a practical matter - getting current will require coming up with the missing payments and penalties, and recovering the 'old payments' will be a long legal battle.
I really don't fear the hassle too much, so long as I can do something like take the new servicer to court for a 'technicality' like not notifying me they were my new servicer - in a timely fashion. That might provide the necessary leverage to push back on any fees, etc.
I am current - of course! - and I deliberately paid a .125 point higher rate in exchange for no impounds (I'm an old-fashioned 80/20 guy). I have no re-fi plans, but if I do, I will pay the extra .125 to be assured my loan & servicing remains with a local institution.
The deal will go through no matter what. B of A, JPM and BlackRock [and maybe a few other players] have all made some kind of deal with the devil (ie the FED). kind of like when you go take a dump and stink up the wife's bathroom so you don't have to smell it, and then she returns the favor at a later time.
On another note, I have a buddy who was shot in the leg during a bank robbery in a B of A branch a few years back. I don't think he was a satisfied customer.
I know if someone came to me and told me to bet my luck eating this spoiled cream sauce against a federal prosecutor with a raging erection finding something in 8 years of my emails re: "we have a CMO roll-out schedule, make some loans already" I would be like "mmm, spoiled cream sauce."
Now there's a mental picture with some staying power.
Good buying point. Once the Chris and Barney Show gets done tailoring its bailout, BofA will smell like roses, the Federal guvment will swallow Countrywide's flavored syrup and everyone will vote Democratic ever more.
Well, maybe a hundred shares. Got to bet with the Senate on this one, but not betting the house either.
I don't even want to know how much this deal is going to cost the taxpayers.
It's clear from the comments here that this deal just doesn't make sense.
Either we are missing something, or the BAC boys are. Since they are privy to more information then us, I guess the question is 'Are they really that dumb?'
Time will give us the anwser...