As I have said before, the Real Point of Recognition is when the Idiocracy wakes up to the fact that we are absolutely 100% leaderless - in Government, in Business, in Economics, in the Media which is supposed to be holding everyone accountable. Every time I hear of a another newspaper or periodical endorsing a political candidate, I cringe. Yet another stark reminder that objectivity is dead and along with it went honesty and accountability.
Yesterday, Bank of America (Countrywide unit), settled the largest discriminatory lending law suit in U.S. history. The settlement was for discriminatory lending that took place by Countrywide before it was owned by BofA, at the height of the housing bubble. This settlement adds to the roughly $40 billion of losses that BofA has incurred since it acquired Countrywide for $4b in 2008.
The Countrywide steaming turd was not the only piece of shite BofA CEO Ken Lewis bought back in the day. The other steaming turd was Merrill Lynch, which BofA bought at the height of the crisis in 2008 just after Lehman collapsed. Apparently, it seemed like a good idea at the time - to buy out ML at a 70% premium to market value in the midst of a market meltdown ?? - and of course the company was another black hole of losses that forced BofA to seek a government bailout to the tune of $97 billion to back loan losses.
So, in the event, everyone lost money on these bad deals except for the country club executives who made these ludicrously bad deals at a time when the subprime problems were well known by everyone. BofA, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch are still tied together like 3 rocks sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The current stock price is $5 down from $55 in 2007.
The 3 CEOs who built this ball of crap have all long since exited with golden parachutes:
1) Angelo Mozillo, the Countrywide founder, received $110 million in severance pay on top of his previous stock sales at the height of the housing bubble. His current net worth is $600 million which includes a $67.5 million settlement with the SEC for fraud i.e. a slap on the wrist that barely dented his overall worth.
2) John Thain, the former Merrill Lynch CEO who dumped that steaming pile on BofA and U.S. taxpayers was paid $83 million for less than one year of work
3) Ken Lewis, was paid $125 million for tying this lump of worthless rot together and handing it to tax payers
What did Obama "change" since he gained office? Nothing. Not one fucking thing. The political system has become a total farce.
As long as the system is rewarding country club morons with insane pay packages to dismember their own country, even as 45 million Americans get by on food stamps, things are not going to get one bit better - despite what the fools in the lamestream media keep trying to tell us.
No one can say they are surprised the next time the bottom falls out.
