How the U.S. Goverment Forced Merrill Bank of America

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Kenneth Lewis is getting a hard lesson in the new balance of power between Washington and Wall Street.

The Bank of America Corp. chairman and chief executive had agreed to buy brokerage giant Merrill Lynch & Co. in September, possibly saving it from collapse. But by early December, Merrill's losses were spiraling out of control. Internal calculations showed Merrill had a horrifying pretax loss of $13.3 billion for the previous two months, and December was looking even worse.

Great moments in central planning.