BofA CEO: $53 million retirement score

[Mikell]

"Lewis' decision to throw tens of billions of shareholder dollars at Merrill when it was on the brink of collapse even drew chortles from the likes of Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who last month dubbed Lewis the "ironic hero" of the meltdown.

But with BofA shares down two-thirds from their 2006 highs, Lewis will depart as no hero to investors -- ironic or otherwise."
http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/01/news/newsmakers/lewis.payout.fortune/index.htm

Remember this?

75% Of Latest Bank Of America Bailout Used To Pay Merrill Lynch Bonuses (BAC)

"By the time it paid its bonuses, Merrill knew about the $21 billion of operating losses for the quarter and Ken Lewis and BOFA knew they would need more capital. Bonuses are supposed to be based on the full year's performance, so the Q4 losses should have reset the bonus pool for the whole year. If most of the bonuses really were paid prior to December (which would be highly unusual--it's almost always a one-time lump sum), then at the very least, the last payment should have been stopped.

Meanwhile, if Merrill hadn't paid out $15 billion in bonuses, Bank of America presumably would only have needed $5 billion from taxpayers, not $20 billion."

And in case you're beginning to have sympathy for BOFA's argument that "bonuses weren't paid with actual taxpayer cash," recall that BOFA has ALREADY RECEIVED $25 billion in taxpayer funds, $10 billion of which were for Merrill. So Merrill used all of the original $10 billion PLUS $5 billion of the latest $20 billion to pay bonuses. Now are you mad?
http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/75-of-latest-bank-of-america-bailout-paid-merrill-lynch-bonuses-bac
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::crazy::crazy:: crazy:

[OldsterHolster]

Now are you mad?

I've been mad most of my adult life about the greed and selfishnes of the rich and powerful. This whole health care reform debacle is just more of the same crap, too. It's all about the money, and you can bet your ass the few who are getting ridiculously rich from the present system will fight tooth and nail to keep making their obscene and unfair amounts of money at the expense of the rest of us. Greed is destroying the world, and, unfortunately, our lawmakers are in bed with these masters of greed, so I don't know what is going to happen to our great country if it stays on it's present path. Edward.

[Terry Penrod]

.

I know, Edward and it's especially infuriating when this kind of outrageous abuse takes place.

There are NO excuses for it and this is one of the few times I've agreed 100% with Michael Moore. His latest film focuses directly on the culprits at AIG, etc. that helped cause the global financial meltdown, then turned right around and rewarded themselves with mega bonuses and lavish perks using tax dollars and/or other ill-gotten gains.

Those bastards deserve to be stripped of every cent, divested of all property, and locked up in (real) prison for a loooooooooooong time - not "enticed" to do their jobs and pampered like kings.

As for the government "watchdogs" who utterly failed to do their jobs and the idiot politicians that thought letting millions of UNqualified people buy houses on UNearned credit was a good idea, they should be banned from public office for life. Some of them deserve to be prosecuted.

Cheers, Terry

[Gary V.]

I don't like Michael Moore, but I think it's good to have guys like him around. It's kind of like Larry Flint exposing the "family value" republicans' affairs.