BofA Posts $1B Loss

Despite the recent gains posted by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Citigroup, sunshine and $3 million bonuses are not bestowed on every one of America's big banks. Bank of America Corp. has just posted a loss of $1 billion in the third quarter of this year, including $2.6 billion in write downs from rebounding credit spreads, and despite the fact that the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch sent its revenue soaring by a third. Unemployment, which hit 9.8 percent last month, likely affected the company, which has a gigantic portfolio of credit card loans, although Chief Executive Ken Lewis said delinquencies among credit-card customers were leveling off. Lewis, a target of government probes into the bank, will be gone from the company in less than three months, but without any of his 2009 salary thanks to the U.S. Treasury's pay czar's decision on Thursday.