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Does Liz Rappaport know what she is talking about? She sounds more like a New York Post staff writer following up a scandal than the Wall Street Journal uncovering an illegal action, and I cannot discover her financial credentials on line.

She seems uncertain whether Lewis owed anything to his shareholders. Is this not the main point? A request from the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve Bank head would not outweigh a chief executive officer's legal obligation to his shareholders.

Ed (comment #12) is one astute son of a gun.

Three things from this segment disturbed me greatly.

1) There was a conspiracy between the Bush administration and a private corporation to keep public subsidies to that business from the public and the congress.

2) There was a conspiracy between the Bush administration and a private corporation to hide from the public, investors and possibly the board of directors the nature of a large merger.

3) A reporter from the work's premier business newspaper apparently does not question the motivation of her confidential sources.

On that last point: If that this testimony is about to become more widely known anyway -- as she said when asked her source's motivations -- why would s/he have leaked it in the first place? Doesn't that just make the question of motivation all the more important?

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One thing to be cheered by in this segment: Brian Lehrer clearly understands the importance of thinking about a confidential source's motivation.

And Susan, you mention long term investors… like people saving for retirement (who hopefully aren’t near retirement right now.) Yes, these people took huge hits, but they’re in it for the long haul and hopefully will be able to recoup most of their lost gains. I’m pretty sure long term investors aren’t usually living off of the dividend income slated to finance their retirement.

James from E.Vill. It’s not blaming the little guy first… I’m saying caveat emptor. Despite what every Republican and nearly every Democrat have tried to drill into the skulls of Americans for the last 30 years, some Americans still realize owning stocks are owning a gamble. They can go up or go down. This is a given. Caller James was living off of imaginary money; this wasn’t cash on hand or even income like employment but assumptions of unfettered and sustained growth. That was irresponsible on his part. BoA and his account managers had a fiduciary duty, but he has a common sense one. No one should boohoo for him and his trailer… he had somewhere to go, a lot of people just end up on the street or a seedy motel. And as others have said... Who's fault is it he didn't diversify?

Voter from Brooklyn: I think that you are off base. Anyone who owned stock as a long term investment lost money, even those like James who used their dividend income to cover some of his expenses. Many of the brokers at Merrill Lynch were not part of the high stakes gambling that took place there either. Many people invested wisely, but many companies were not honest about the condition of their companies. Your comments are naive.

Blame James, don't blame Ken Lewis. Always blame the little guy first. How bush/cheney of you.

The NYSE is the biggest gambling parlor in the world. James lost. That’s that. Invest wisely and realize you’re gambling or don’t get in the market at all.

(To me it is obvious. ALWAYS default to transparency. This is the cornerstone of true Capitalism.)

Ken Lewis and his friends at the WSJ released this info now so the shareholders will not kick him out. (Blame the government for the falling stock price. not Ken.) It's obvious. The source was Ken Lewis.

It's the Perp Walk Perp Off:
Paulson or Cheney?

What?!? Not like this is a financial advice segment, but what the heck is James, the first caller, doing living off of his stock investments?

Completely irresponsible and ill-advised. I have no professional financial training, and I know that. No sympathy for that guy.

james
don't put all ur eggs in one basket

I keep my stock portfolio with Merrill Lynch and from what I understand, even John Thain, the former head of Merrill Lynch, was hiding debt from Bank of America. That was one of the reasons he was later fired by Kenneth Lewis.

I am a former employee 1985-2001 of BOA and a shareholder. The government has brought RICO cases against others that interfered and stron-armed businsess people less than Paulson and Behrnanke did the BOA management and shareholders.

My business is a customer. What about those of us who have relied on BofA to provide credit, hold cash balances, etc. Clearly, this opaque behavior has impacted us as well as BofA's other constituents.

My entire family closed all of our Bank of America accounts about a week ago. This is absolutely disgusting.

I'm very curious about average people who invest in mutual funds (eg IRAs) with Merrill Lynch - do we face any increased risk because ML is managing our money??

Mr. Lehrer, instead of smugly speculating that Rupert Murdoch is responsible for the recent rash of banner headlines in the Wall Street Journal, I wonder if you would entertain the idea that THERE HAS BEEN A WHOLE LOT OF REALLY BIG ECONOMIC NEWS LATELY. Indeed, you thought today's WSJ banner headline story was so important that you made it your lead segment this morning. Sheesh.

wait are u saying the bush administration kept secrets and lied to us. this IS news!

Wait, you're telling me the Bush Admin. tried to keep their dealings secret? Next you're going to tell me that the Bush Admin. sought secrecy on torture methods.

Was Cheney in the room...?