Let’s see here, since coming to his senses a couple weeks ago, the BofA CEO has:
- Pitched John “Darth” Thain over the side as soon as humanly possible? Check.
- Said out-loud that using Thain’s influence with the feds to weasel $20b. more in bailout funds from Uncle Sam was a mistake? Check
- Found a way out from under the ML’s funny-money obligations, even if that means undoing the merger? Hmmmm…
Lewis is right to protest that BofA should not be lumped in as being as sick as Citi — it is not. But neither is it well and when AIG is still out there, stumbling around, eating brains, and sucking up cash a whole lot of folks are going to worry about zombies.
This is why I still wonder if the best course for Lewis is to try to re-make BofA as a super-sized community bank without the investment bank hangover. It is probably far too late for that, but if this goes on for two more quarters — in other words twice as long as the consensus of just six weeks ago — I wonder if he’ll regret not having made the call right now.
And now, Meatloaf:
