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Monday, October 24, 2011

More of the Same

... and no one, Democrat nor Republican, has raised a cry about it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-23/bank-of-america-too-much-of-behemoth-to-fail-commentary-by-simon-johnson.html
Bloomberg News reported on Oct. 18 that regulators have allowed Bank of America to move highly risky derivatives contracts -- and the associated downside risk -- from Merrill Lynch into the insured retail deposit-taking part of the bank. The move puts the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on the hook for any losses. The FDIC’s deposit-insurance funds come from its member banks, but because the agency can tap a U.S. Treasury line of credit if the fund runs dry, taxpayers could be at risk, too..
 If Bank of America really had enough capital, it wouldn’t have needed to move its derivatives risk onto its FDIC-insured deposit business.
B of A is in trouble and the first response is to put the taxpayers at risk. It is time to start removing "too big to fail" entities by breaking them up into reasonably sized institutions.
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