You know how all of the chatter about “the recovery” during the past couple of years has sounded like pure propaganda when held up against real economic life on the ground for real people in the United States? You know how that kind of talk has all hinged on how the big corporations are doing, as opposed to the rest of us? Well, it looks like reality may be about to assert itself and expose the lies. A true apocalypse, in the best sense of the term: “An Apocalypse (Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apokálypsis; ‘lifting of the veil’ or ‘revelation’) is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted.”
While nobody was looking, America’s largest bank approached the brink, tested the wind, lifted a foot, and started teetering. Well, to be fair, some people were looking. Wall Street has been worried about Bank of America for the better part of a year. Its stock price has declined from about $15 a share in January to a low of $6.01 this week, shedding nearly 30 percent of its value in the past month alone. There are rumors that JPMorgan will take it over. There are suggestions that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should bail it out. There is talk of another credit crunch. Bank of America might just be the beginning…Unfortunately, this story is bigger than America’s biggest bank. Bank of America is just the most badly bruised fruit in a rapidly rotting basket…[T]he real economy never bounced back. Families never got back to buying big new houses. Consumers never got back to spending their money. Businesses never got back to hiring new workers. Companies never got back to investing in themselves…So worry about Bank of America — which, if it is not facing an immediate crisis, is still looking at a very difficult path to profitability. But worry more about the real economy and the banks that rely on it.
Full story at Salon.
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I’m not sure which is more disturbing, the current economy or your recent posting frenzy. I seriously can’t keep up. With that being said, my mundane job here locally is real estate, specifically foreclosures and I will tell you from my personal experience that the volume of bad paper that BA holds is frightening. (Almost as good as the preview above). 🙂
But what can I do except stand here in my little world and watch the show?
Sorry if I’m inundating with posts, Shelley. Got a buzz going, figured I may as well exploit it. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your professional insight into the BoA situation. All any of us can do is stand here in our respective little worlds and watch the show, while keeping an eye on possible near-to-us negative effects. I also find it valuable to try and gain a bird’s-eye view by trying to see how the puzzle pieces all connect. The resulting pictures may be fictional, but I find them creatively stimulating. So, tally-ho to the correlating of contents (he said with a distinctly Lovecraftian irony).