You may remember that I have kept you posted on the Bank of America SEC investigation,and how they misled shareholders regarding the Merrill Lynch deal. Bank of America deal with the SEC regarding these charges for $33 million, has been rejected and Bank of America executives are due to be charged regarding their improper activities in the Merrill Lynch deal. The charges regarding the bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives and not disclosed to share holders is going to go to trial despite Bank of America executives claiming they relied on attorneys advice on what they disclosed to share holders.

The Attorney General of New York Andrew Cumo’s office will be the filing the charges against the Bank of America Executives, regarding improper disclosure of bonuses to Merrill Lynch executives and that Bank of America almost backed out of deal after considering Merrill Lynch bonuses and bottom line profitability. Bank of America and the SEC thought they had this sensitive case behind them, and now in these trying financial times when Bank of America took TARP monies to stay a float, and then paid these huge bonuses without disclosing them thus misleading shareholders many are outraged as I am. The SEC will have to build a case against Bank of America regarding their misconduct and handling of this deal, and the huge bonuses paid and not disclosed to shareholders will come to light. I am sure many will wonder as I do how can Bank of America think it is okay to pay these huge bonuses, and not disclose them to share holders, shortly after they took huge amount of TARP monies to even stay in business.

Bank of America still claims they did not violate any disclosure rules, though if that were true would they have tried to settle for $33 million with the SEC regarding the issues regarding the Merrill Lynch deal. Bank of America is claiming that they were pressed into agreeing to the SEC settlement, though they are still claiming innocence and that they did nothing improper regarding not disclosing the huge bonuses paid to the Merrill Lynch executives as part of the purchase to share holders.

The Attorney General Cuomo’s office is looking to file civil charges against the Bank of America executives, regarding the Merrill Lynch deal and the fact they did not disclose information to the share holders regarding the huge bonuses they were offering Merrill Lynch executives as part of deal.
How can we let Bank of America spend the TARP funds we gave them so foolishly and then simply claim they did nothing wrong when we have evidence that they did not disclose these bonuses to Merrill Lynch executives. Bank of America is also one of the banks that is the slowest to respond to their customers regarding the huge number of failing mortgages as part of the federal program to assist home owners in trying to keep their homes.

I am sure you know that many of us are tired of the same old government spending and huge national debt, and not seeing any return for our monies and with president Obama it is no different . You may see by now that the Obama administration who promised change have just given us more of the same spending, more government involvement and ownership of large corporations, government in talking about health care take over, and the huge and not very helpful Stimulus package, and the Affordable Housing program that the banks are slow to respond to put in place. The almost socialist Obama administration programs and involvement are making planing a investment portfolio more difficult.

With the government owning AIG and General Motors, it will be harder for a stronger company like Ford for to compete when the government is financially behind their competition. You will soon with health care reform, knowing health care is 1/6 of our economy, and the government deciding who will give care and what companies will be favored in the health care plan that this will change the financial strength of companies that are not favored in health care plan. We all need health care and the health care companies need to be reined in reduce affordability to all Americans, though the way we are going seems to be toward a more Socialized plan where care and all will suffer.

The Stimulus plan of the Obama administration are stopping the natural flow of our economy and have bailed out failing banks many of which got into financial difficulty over reckless lending practices. Then you take Bank of America who received huge amounts of TARP funds and has yet to pay it back yet Bank of America is under SEC investigation regarding misleading share holders regarding Merrill Lynch deal. Bank of America is also one of the slowest to work with customers to refinance troubled mortgages, blaming lack of people to deal with huge number of loans to be modified. We are giving good money after bad to companies that are working to make their bottom lines better, but is it really helping the American people, and are the companies like Bank of America really even trying to do what they are supposed to be doing.

With the huge government involvement in the economy the free market is not so free after all, with the huge involvement in large corporations and ties to banks. You should consider Obama’s plan is rewarding the banks and corporations that have not done well, while making it hard for the companies that have stayed strong to compete in this biased economy. With all the government involvement in business and banking, and soon in health care Americans will have to be happy with slower corporate growth and lower returns on stock investments. Investors will no longer be able to put monies in investments for long periods as they did in the 80’s and 90’s, to make good investments in these times you will need to look for strategic stock advantages rather than broad index investing. In these more difficult trading times you should consider a good investment brokerage firm or investment planner.

The one rock solid investment is ” Gold ” which will stay strong and show high returns as it is not tied to paper money, and no matter how out of control the Obama spending seems to be or how it changes stock returns. You might also keep in mind the talk that the G20 and Ben Bernanke are working to reduce the value of paper monies and greatly increase the value of Gold to offset debt.

“BOTTOM LINE BUY GOLD AND HOLD ON TO IT AS LONG AS YOU CAN AS YOU WILL SEE HUGE AND CONSISTENT RETURNS” In these crazy times with Obamanomics it is hard to find a safe investment, but Gold is and will stay strong.