Bloomberg news service has an ongoing story, which it’s been updating through the day about our hometown heroes, Bank of America. It turns out that the city’s former gods are trying to weasel out of paying billions of dollars they owe to We the Taxpayers.
U.S. Treasury regulators say BofA needs to pay up at least part of a $4 billion fee the banking giant agreed to pay in January when the government made guarantees against possible losses at Merrill Lynch. BofA acquired Merrill Lynch, at the urging of the Bush administration, and thus benefited from government backing on over $100 billion in Merrill Lynch assets. According to the Bloomberg report, BofA is saying it doesn’t owe the money because the agreement was never signed. The government is saying, “Pay up.” And we’re saying, “Make ‘em pay or risk the political consequences, as voters have had about enough of big financial interests running roughshod over every friggin’ thing they please!” Thanks, we feel better now.
This article appears in Jul 7-14, 2009.
