I had some idea of BoA’s exposures. Not as much as I’d like, but enough to satisfy me based on the limited time I had for research (a few hours) and the dollar amount.
I do not think it’s a good idea for the leadership of public companies in general, and the biggest publicly traded financial institutions in particular, to have divided loyalties. And I am unsatisfied that our system for regulating companies allows egregious examples of divided loyalty. If the only way that you could trust company management of a publicly traded company not to rip you off was sheer trust, then the entire public company route for allocating capital efficiently across the economy would be terribly, and unnecessarily inefficient.
So sure, I bear responsibility for choosing BoA stock, and I am not blaming anyone else for my own choice. But that doesn’t take Ken Lewis or his board of the hook for very bad choices, and for putting themselves ahead of their shareholders improperly. To the extent that the SEC or other regulatory bodies are charged with ensuring we have the most efficient system for allocating capital across our economy, then they also failed when they permitted such behavior.
