How would you react if Bank of America went out of business?

Don’t have to think…I know I would be smilin inside.

I’d be glad!

I would be furious on behalf of the people who lost their savings… though it would not affect me personally.

@dappled_leaves Most deposits and accounts up to $250,000.00 are safe and insured by the FDIC.

My niece works for B of A.

I would hope that the government would seize the funds of any golden parachutes, SEO retirement payouts, or unpaid bailouts, and distribute them to the employees who would be laid off, so that those employees could subsist in reasonable comfort until they found new employment.

Meh. A sign of the times. I have already been the refugee of the World/Wachovia/Wells Fargo mergers the last handful of years.

That’s horrible they they’re planning to lay off so many people, but I hope they don’t go out of business.

I have my mortgage with Bank Of America, and their customer service is wonderful. When I dial their customer service line, the wait is often just a few seconds (though I bet that’s going to change after the layoffs), and their reps have the power to expedite things for you.

I once had a problem with my homeowners insurance, and the BoA rep called my insurance adjuster directly and, together, resolved the issue that I couldn’t have done so on my own going back and forth between them.

Personally, I would be happy after my experiences with them.

The last straw for me was when I deposited the first paycheck from my first Seattle job and they managed to lose it and then some, giving me a balance of -$800 when it was supposed to be +$1,400. Even when I showed them the receipt, they tried to deny such a deposit ever took place, and it was pure fucking Hell and a massive runaround to get the situation resolved. Unlike @HungryGuy, that was the only time I ever managed to resolve a situation with BoA. After dealing with them, I am a local credit union guy for life now.

I would feel bad for all of the tellers and other low-level employees that will lose their jobs, but BoA itself can suck my dick, choke on it, and die! Yeah, there may be a little market panic for a while as people get their delusions about “too big to fail” shattered, but get real! Look, there are plenty of other financial institutions, and I am sure that seeing one of their own die will get the others to shape up in order to avoid the same fate.

I didn’t give a FF about Bank of America, but it would depend for me on the impact it would have for the people of this country.

It wouldn’t affect me directly but I’d wonder about all the people they employ.

Everyone saying “Good riddance” or “Serves them right” or “I’d be happy” need to have their center of morality examined.

You’d be happy that nearly 300,000 people lost their jobs? Really? You have a problem with the policies decided upon by about 10–20 upper executives, people who are by now far beyond wealthy enough to be just fine if the company closed, and for that reason you’d actually be happy that 299,980 or so people who had nothing to do with creating those policies are out of a job?

Seriously?

The likelihood BofA would go out of business is a joke, if they ever did it would shock the sh@% out of me. They are too diverse in too many of the financial arena. BofA is not just here they are in the US they are worldwide. When you see in the new they are getting rid of x amount of jobs usually that does not mean they are laying off employees it means that they are just elimating the open req’s for positions and not filling positions when someone leaves. I am not a huge fan of the bank since I used to work there and they couldn’t accommidate my need to go part-time when my daughter got ill and my FMLA ran out but you are all dreaming if you think they are going under. Ken Lewis when he was CEO really knew how to divisify the company to make it strong. They also paid all of the TARP funds plus interest back within a few of months. Some banks still have theirs. They are a strong bank and they didn’t get to the size they were because they were weak.

It would cost the taxpayers yet another fortune. They made a decision to effectively get rid of all their non-profitable small customers (you and I), but their business as a whole is solid.

I would ask that another one be posited.
And then carry on as normal when it was.

My feelings would be very mixed. Yes, I would feel badly that so many tellers and low-level employees are losing their jobs and benefits. After all, they have families to support and are just trying to get by. However, I would also be quite pleased to see BOA go up in flames, preferably with their board of directors trapped inside.

It fascinates me how many people think Bank of America (and presumably other banks) are made up of Executives and tellers. You apparently believe the only aspect of the company is the local branch that you walk into to cash your checks.

Big Banks are made up of tellers, executives, lawyers, financial analysts, software engineers, system administrators, quality control personal, data entry employees, mid-level managers, client representatives, technicians, and loads more jobs that aren’t at the forefront of my mind.

As a software engineer who works for Bank of America – and has had absolutely nothing to do with any of the policies or procedures that have pissed you off – I really think you need to get a better grip on reality before deciding you want my place of employment (which, by the way, doesn’t even have a banking branch) to “go up in flames”.

@MrItty I am not sure how many people here actually think the way you think we think, but I know that a fair portion of us are aware that BoA has employees at all levels, most of whom have no say in company policies.

That said, there are only two ways to let BoA execs know that their practices are unacceptable; hurt them financially, or hurt them violently. I think it safe to say that few of us want to firebomb buildings and kill people, so that means that driving them out of business is a better option, even if that results in collateral damage.

The alternative is to send the message that it is acceptable for businesses to do whatever the hell they want, which leads to problems. A better message to send is that any business that pisses off their customers will fail in a free market economy. And when I say “any”, I mean that there is no such thing as “too big to fail”.

Just out of curiosity, how many customers does BoA have compared to the number of people they employ? The reason I ask is that I would rather hurt a few thousand people than a few million. You, apparently, do not care how many people get hurt so long as you are not one of them.

I’ll give you another though, withdraw your money and close your accounts. Repeat that a few thousand or million times.

@jerv that is an absurd comparison. There are a couple thousand banks that you can move your accounts to if you’re not happy with the service you get, with basically no effort on your part required. When people get fired or laid off, it’s damn near impossible to find a new job in this economy.

@MrItty
“There are a couple thousand banks that you can move your accounts to if you’re not happy with the service you get,”
And many people are doing just that… though after the CitiBank fiasco a couple of weeks ago, some people might be afraid to since lawyering up and appearing in court do require effort.
Personally, I did move because I was unhappy with the service I got, and I know plenty of others that are moving as a result of some more recent changes.
Of course, fewer customers means less revenue, which will hurt them financially. C’est la vie.

“When people get fired or laid off, it’s damn near impossible to find a new job in this economy.”
According to many Conservatives (the same people that allow…, nay, condone the sort of stuff BoA does), the only people that can’t find jobs are those that don’t want one; the unemployed are all lazy. Besides, many of the banks that wind up with former BoA customers will need extra staff to handle the extra business.
Or do you agree with those who feel that that statement is correct, in which case, you also agree that BoA should be allowed to fail and should not have been bailed out?

I agree with the idea that the free market should decide what businesses should thrive and which should fail.

I disagree with anyone who is morally repugnant enough to be happy about anyone – customer or employee – going through financial hardship.

By the way, BoA is one of the only companies that actually paid back all of the bailout money, with interest, and way ahead of schedule at that.

@MrItty Happiness is relative. When I injured my knee on a construction site a few years ago, I was not happy to have that burning sensation that you get when you rip a lot of ligaments, but that did not change the fact that I was happy to get that 1500 pounds of sheetrock off my legs. Sometimes happiness is merely the the thing that sucks less.

As for the repayment, I have to say that that sort of quick repayment calls into question whether they really needed help in the first place. Some people have actually suggested that they reason they did so was that part of the conditions for that loan were limits placed on how they operated; things like limiting executive compensation and such. Personally, I don’t really have much opinion on the bailout beyond my usual cynical skepticism.I brought it up mostly to get a better idea of where/what your ideology is.