Video: The Fate of Ken Lewis
CNBC - January 23, 2009

Both Countrywide and Merrill Lynch (among others) were at ground zero in the global financial meltdown (see Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles From Wall Street ). Ken Lewis, Bank of America’s CEO, had reason to be more careful with the Merrill acquisition. Janet Tavakoli points out that people were “making up numbers.”

Furthermore, Ms. Tavakoli asserts that Merrill’s fourth quarter losses will not primarily be from subprime. Leveraged loans and losses in the correlation books, especially Asia, were likely high contributors to losses.

Janet Tavakoli is the president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a Chicago-based firm that provides consulting to financial institutions and institutional investors. Ms. Tavakoli has more than 20 years of experience in senior investment banking positions, trading, structuring and marketing structured financial products. She is a former adjunct professor of derivatives at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. She is the author of: Credit Derivatives & Synthetic Structures (John Wiley & Sons, 1998, 2001), Structured Finance & Collateralized Debt Obligations (John Wiley & Sons, 2008), and
Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles From Wall Street (John Wiley & Sons January 2009)

Clients of Tavakoli Structured Finance have the benefit of proprietary consultation, which is not available in any other paid or public forum. Clients also commission proprietary research and analysis.

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