Ward on Words

According to the WSJ , BoA attorneys today filed statements in court that made clear their perspective on the $3.6 billion in Merrill Lynch bonuses that were paid out just one day before it was absorbed by BoA: "Bank of America Corp. said Monday it did not mislead shareholders about its approval of billions in Merrill Lynch & Co. bonuses before a merger of the two firms, noting that it was "widely understood" that Merrill would award year-end compensation and the bank never told investors it had prohibited such payments. Bank of America said Merrill disclosed its intention to pay bonuses in separate federal filings throughout 2008. The new statements were made in a filing to federal Judge Jed Rakoff, who has refused to sign off on a $33 million settlement of a Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit targeting the bank for what it disclosed about the bonuses before a December shareholder vote. The SEC said proxy documents sent to investors in November 2...

In February, Frontline aired a documentary "Inside the Meltdown, " a documentary on the financial crisis. I was very busy with work and missed it when it aired on TV, but watched it last night online. I recommend it as a great resource for anyone looking for information about the collapse of our economy. At one point, Senator Dodd recounts the moment the Treasury Secretary informed an elite group of Congressmen about the situation. After being told that Congress needed to hand over vast sums of money or the global economy would collapse, says Dodd, "there was literally a pause in that room where the oxygen left." We were all left gasping for air when we were told that "the system" was drowning in toxic assets and the great titans of capitalism needed socialism to save them. Money from the feds was needed - vast sums of money, trillions of dollars had to go to these Wall Street firms to "bail them out" - no strings attached. That ...

The first hint of confusion came for me when reading about the banking CEOs who recently appeared before congress. As live-blogged by the Wall Street Journal , several of the executives claimed no need for TARP funds; that they in fact had rather unwillingly taken billions of dollars from the feds at the request of the Treasury Department. The executives made statements like, "...we did not seek TARP funds..." and "we were strongly encouraged to participate [in TARP] and we did." And now Northern Trust. This is the Chicago-based bank now made famous to most Americans through a story brought to us by TMz.com - the online gossip rag. As most of us know by now, thanks to the impeccable reporting of TMZ, the bank, which had received $1.6 billion in TARP funds, threw a lavish party recently as part of its commitment to host the Northern Trust Open charity event. In an " open letter to Northern Trust Shareholders, clients and staff " issued to defend...