You wonder why bank BOA is getting trashed look at this for a piece of accounting nonsense. Who really knows what the balance sheets of these banks really is.
B. of A. booked $2.2 bln gain on fall in Merrill debt
By Greg Morcroft Last update: 8:06 a.m. EDT April 20, 2009Comments: 11 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America (BAC:bank of
4:00pm 04/17/2009
BAC 10.82, +0.48, +4.6%) said on Monday that it booked a gain of $2.2 billion in the first quarter based on the declining value of debt issued by its recently-acquired Merrill Lynch unit. As the price of a certain class of Merrill structured notes fell during the quarter, Bank of America was able to book the amount of that decline as a gain, on the assumption that it could buy back the debt at the cheaper price
