I heard on the radio that BofA is splitting up, closing 600+ branches and laying off thousands. Way to go democrats.
I'm of mixed opinion about this whole deal. MANY of the bad mortgages weren't CRA type loans, which I think can only be 30-year fixed. So there was a fair amount of risk-taking done by the banks that was not mandated. And a fair amount of picking through mortgages and packaging crap mortgages that went on without mandate. At the end of the day, they were selling these loans at a premium and booking that income while retaining no risk, just like the smaller mortgage brokers. Of course, being the quasi-government entities that FRE and FAN are, they don't hire the best and brightest, and are easy to screw over. That they shouldn't even exist in the first place is a whole other issue. It very well could be that the proper information was disclosed and the idiot analysts at FRE and FAN were simply too stupid to understand it.
Now, BofA was screwed with the Countrywide purchase, but it was their choice, even if pressured politically. At the end of the day, there's a few of the big banks that should have simply gone under, period. BofA was one, Citi another.
ALL of their loans should have been sold to more responsible banks for pennies on the dollar, with no bailouts, and then the mortgages could have been negotiated at a profit to the banks that bought the loans, foreclosures would be lower, the glut of homes on the market would be lower, etc. All from allowing market forces to operate.
