Lewis Next in Line For Lopping

Also see: Greenberg First in Line For Guillotine

"It's irresponsible for an executive of a public company to be speculating in the way that he is. He should be more contrite, more circumspect than he is."


Bank of America Corp. chief executive Kenneth Lewis is ''optimistic that we're getting close to the bottom and that we'll be seeing signs of recovery.'' (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Another looting liar?

Maybe then, the abuse and rape of the American people will stop!

"CEO upbeat about Bank of America" by Associated Press | April 3, 2009

NEW YORK - Bank of America Corp. chief executive Kenneth D. Lewis is upbeat - about both his company and the broader US economy.

"I am optimistic that we're getting close to the bottom and that we'll be seeing signs of recovery," Lewis said in an interview with CNBC yesterday.

Lewis also expressed confidence that Bank of America will not only be surviving, but thriving by 2011. He said 2009 will be tough for banks, and that credit defaults will keep rising. He also acknowledged that employment usually rebounds after the rest of the economy does.

But "even this year . . . you'll see the earnings power of this machine, and then you'll see it really start to come to fruition in 2010," Lewis said. "And then 2011 should be the year that you get a lot of this behind you and see the full earnings power of Bank of America."

Related: FDIC Preparing For Massive Bank Failures

Billions of dollars are locked up in loan loss reserves, Lewis added. A loan loss reserve is essentially an account set aside for the losses a bank incurs when loans don't get repaid.

"You could actually create huge amounts of equity by just letting the banks use their reserves," he said. Industry analysts, however, were skeptical about the outlook for the company, which is still absorbing two troublesome acquisitions: the brokerage Merrill Lynch and the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.

Loan losses are expected to keep soaring, and those reserves will be needed, said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics. "I understand that everybody wants to bring confidence up, but we have to have some basis for confidence," Whalen said. "It's irresponsible for an executive of a public company to be speculating in the way that he is. He should be more contrite, more circumspect than he is."

ARROGANCE can't SMELL its OWN SHIT:

"Some of Bank of America's institutional shareholders have been calling for Kenneth Lewis to resign as chief executive since the firm received $20 billion in bailout money to buy Merrill Lynch & Co."

I'll do you one better!

--more--"