Saturday, March 07, 2009

Bank Of America Is Right

I wholeheartedly agree with the lawyers representing one of the biggest banks in America. Disclosing the bonuses of Merrill Lynch employees preceding BoA's acquisition will cause "grave and irreparable harm" if the information gets out to the public.

Guess what?

I can't wait to see all of those details disclosed, down to the very last penny.

Does that mean Bank of America will fail? No, I doubt that will happen at this date, the government Fed has invested too much money in them (like they have in AIG) to let the megalithic bank go down in flames.

The "harm" will come in other ways though. With Cuomo's help as New York's Attorney General, the insatiable and devastating greed of these Wall Street houses will continue to be in the news. While Main Street suffers, those living on it will be able to see the wealthy protest having their dirty laundry aired out in public. It will harm their reputations and deservedly so.

Whatever these people are guilty of, the more that we know about it, the better we'll be in the long run. Unless we get full accountability then nothing systemic will change. Without justice, there will just be another bubble down the line and this catastrophic economic environment will be recreated again.

There was a few minutes dedicated to this issue on Bill Maher's show last night. One of the panelists, I believe the CNBC anchor, was saying that the rich have suffered, with trillions in assets having vanished over the last few months. Maher, ever the brilliant debater, countered with the fact that the rich are not suffering, it is their bank statements that are hurting. Other Americans, the ones that are foregoing three meals a day to make ends meet, those are the people that are truly suffering in this fiscal crisis.

We need to get our priorities straight in this country. I think President Obama is trying to guide us out of the greed and self-serving behavior of the last eight thirty years since we heard how greed is good under Reagan. Though as Obama said, it can't be done by him alone. So by exposing these titans of Wall Street who pillaged their companies before they collapsed, we are serving the greater good for a change. And if that causes these people grave and irreperable harm....well, they did it to themselves.