Jon Corzine for Bank of America CEO?

rumor that makes some of you want to puke.

After a sound rejection by the New Jersey voters in the gubernatorial election, Jon Corzine may be staging a comeback already. This time, as the new CEO of Bank of America.

Overheard: Corzine's Comeback? (11/5/09 Wall Street Journal)

"From Trenton to Charlotte? Bank of America's chief executive search has highlighted the paucity of available executives with a history of running complex financial organizations. But one has just come available. Fresh from his rejection as governor by New Jersey voters, former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine already is being whispered about as a dark horse candidate. With BofA still under the government's thumb, his political experience could come in handy."

It would make sense politically for Bank of America. As one of the non-Wall Street banks (another major one is Wells Fargo) with an outsider CEO like Ken Lewis who seems to have been targeted by the regulators (Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner) to be stepped upon repeatedly, having a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and a darling of the administration might improve their lot.

All I can say is that the founder of Bank of Italy in San Francisco which evolved into Bank of America, would be so disgusted to see his bank now. The founder Amadeo Giannini was an entrepreneur who believed in people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (the very spirit that was ridiculed by the way at the Democratic convention that nominated the then-candidate Obama):

"The Bank of Italy[17] was founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904, based on catering to immigrants. Amadeo was raised by the Fava/Stanghellini family when his father was shot while trying to collect on a $10.00 debt.[citation needed] When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Because San Francisco's banks were in smoldering ruins and unable to open their vaults, Giannini was able to use the rescued funds to start lending within a few days of the disaster. From a makeshift desk of a few planks over two barrels, he lent money to anyone who was willing to rebuild. He took great pride in later years that all of these loans were repaid." (from Wikipedia.org)

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