I made this graphic, but I don’t think it’s going to be used for anything, so I’m putting it here. I’m quite pleased with how it looks.
Bank Of America took $20 billion in TARP cash. This happened at the end of 2008. In September 2008, BofA acquired Merrill Lynch. Merrill gave itself $15 billion in bonuses and took $15 billion in losses. So Merrill had $40 billion in money out the door, while it’s new parent company took $20 billion from the government. Or another way to think of it, the government, that is, us, paid for Merrill Lynch’s bonuses.
Another graphic, though not as nice as this one:
Maybe you’d like to see another representation of this? This version depicts the ineptitude of Bank Of America’s CEO in the past year.
