AlterNet: Greedy Bank of America Engineers "Fake Rescue" in Sub-Prime Fire Sale

[marmar]

Greedy Bank of America Engineers "Fake Rescue" in Sub-Prime Fire Sale

By Danny Schechter, AlterNet. Posted January 15, 2008.

Bank of America bought out Countrywide Home Loan to avoid harming its other ambitious and often avaricious strategies.



rescue |_reskyo_|

verb ( -cues , -cued, -cuing )

-save (someone) from a dangerous or distressing situation

-an act of saving or being saved from danger or distress

New York, New York: Who doesn't love the idea of a dramatic rescue -- like saving a child who fell in a well, bringing miners out of danger from a hazardous hellhole, or the courage of that hero who jumped on the subway tracks to safeguard a passenger in the way of a speeding train?

We appreciate rescue helicopters, rescue squads in fire departments -- New York has a big fully equipped van called "Rescue One,"-- or the daily bravery of the Coast Guard plucking unskilled seafarers from turbulent waters. The more risky the rescue, the more we like it.

But now even a self-interested maneuver by America's biggest consumer bank (net work $175 Billion) is being cast in a heroic light as in the "rescue" of America's biggest mortgage company, Countrywide Financial by the Bank of America. (NY Times headline: "Bank is Seen as Rescuing Giant Lender.")

When the $4 billion deal was leaked to the media, the markets were ecstatic and the share price went up. The acquisition crazed BOA -- itself an aquisition of Nation's Bank-- which, thanks to new bank-friendly laws and deregulation, went from being a Western institution to a national one, was said to be acting to prevent the collapse of a company vital to saving the national economy. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/73733/

[Turbineguy]

1. It's not a rescue

it's a shrewd business decision. Mozila put Countrywide stock in the toilet. BofA buys the company cheap, Mozila gets $115 million in walking money.

I see it this way, Mozila survives the Bush Administration without having to become a Hate-Radio Talkshow host or a Television Preacher.