[Arguendo]

Merrill has not gotten any TARP money--they agreed to be sold to BoA before the bailout was even proposed.

What should Merrill do--try to renege on the employment contract? Should Kraus just give it up because, hey, the company that hired him got acquired by another company that later accepted TARP funds (under pressure from Paulson, even though they were actually pretty healthy)?

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>What should Merrill do—try to renege on the employment contract?<<

They probably can’t legally avoid paying the Kraus bonus, but “our” government should not mindlessly give BoA (or any other company) money.

When BoA buys Merrill, it buys Merrill’s debts.

So what did happen to the money that Paulson forced BoA to accept? Whatever happened to it, (assuming that the BoA bailout was a legally binding loan) if BoA or whoever eats BoA goes under, it’s our problem. You say BoA is “pretty healthy” but I remember last year when AIG was considered a good investment among many Wall Street “experts.”