The government is forcing banks to take the money. I know this because I live in Charlotte and my husband works in technology at Bank of America.

Bank of America was forced to take the money last fall. They were told that the government didn't want the public to be able to distinguish the good banks from the bad banks. When Merrill Lynch got into trouble B of A expressed an interest but didn't have a lot of time to examine the numbers coming out of Merrill. I've witnessed many mergers over the last 15 years at B of A and I know how careful they usually are. I also know that B of A tried to back out of the Merrill deal but the government wouldn't let them. Now the government is trying to set B of A up to be a scape goat for the whole industry and it really sucks. Ken Lewis is no hugh McColl, but he has done some decent things. All of the bail out money has gone to rewrite mortgages and they have even started repaying the government back.

I hate the bad press that B of A is getting. There are a lot of jobs here in Charlotte that depend on B of A. These are hard working, mid level, middle class people. These people don't deserve to be dragged down like this.

Ryan, Ann is usually a guest on shows that are commentary based. There is a difference. The problem here is that a lot of people, mostly liberals can't seem to tell the difference between news and commentary.

I agree.

Lesley, what is wrong with you? No class.