Bank of America Spends $7 Billion on Chinese Bank, Then Lays Off 30,000 Workers from Firedoglake

Ah, the sweet smell of your TARP money being used to batter the US economy senseless. First Bank of America gets $15 billion of TARP funds, and issues $9 billion worth of bonds guaranteed by the FDIC, then it spends $7 billion to buy a big stake in a Chinese bank.

Now Bank of America announces it's laying off 30,000 to 35,000 workers. Why? In part because it took over Merrill Lynch and wants to "eliminate redundancies". Now, that's entirely rational for Bank of America, as is spending $7 billion to buy up shares in a bank cheap (they got a below market price). But it's not good for the US because that money was meant to be loaned to Americans and because layoffs make the economic situation worse (and those laid of workers will immediately cost the government a ton of money.)

rest at http://firedoglake.com/2008/12/13/bank-of-america-spends-7-billion-on-chinese-bank-then-lays-off-30000-workers/