Since then New York state (Cuomo as attorney general), the SEC, the Federal Reserve, the mainstream media, and the Treasury Department have hounded Bank of America in an effort to further weaken it.
Note that Bank of America picked up most of its derivative exposure due to the Merrill Lynch acquisition, not due to its own actions prior to the big bailout.
Now Bank of America will be brought down and its good assets divided among the New York banks after the taxpayers cover the bad debt.
I remember this going down when the crap began hitting the fan.....Paulson and Bernanke were the "pressure" men of the hour... people in the know were furious.
Remember Bush’s first two Secretaries of the Treasury were non Wall Street corporate types who quietly pushed for financial reforms. Both were pushed out and ultimately replaced by Hank Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs, the ultimate financial insider. Bush also appointed Ben Bernanke to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The Republicans are as much enablers of crony Wall Street capitalism as the Democrats. The Wall Street banks have increased their stranglehold over the economy since Bill Clinton appointed Robert Rubin (also Goldman Sachs) to the Secretary of the Treasury position.
True economic reform will require breaking up the Wall Street banking cartel and once again separating investment banking from retail banking. Neither party is currently favoring this type of reform because both parties are owned by Wall Street.