Do you know the definition of a banker?  It is a person who will lend you an umbrella on a sunny day, and then ask for it back when the rain starts falling. 

Ken Lewis is retiring as CEO of Bank of America after overseeing the rapid implosion of one of the largest financial institutions in the country. 

As the global financial collapse was getting started last year, he decided to purchase both Country Wide Mortgage and Merrill Lynch so that he could really become a player in the global financial casino.  When BoA teetered on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of “biting off more than it could chew”, the government bailed his bank out, while Lewis engineered the payout of huge financial bonuses for former Merrill Lynch employees behind every one’s back. 

Later, when it was discovered that BoA had failed to disclose this fact in SEC filings,  the SEC brought civil charges against the bank, wherein an agreement that was reached that would have resulted in the bank paying a record $33 Million fine – which meant shareholders, not the executives, would ultimately be the one’s who would suffer the consequences.  The federal judge overseeing that matter angrily denied to sign off on the settlement, openly stating that was incensed over the fact that no one was taking responsibility and that the government had not brought criminal charges (the civil case is now set for trial in February 2010). 

In the wake of all of this,  BoA shareholders then demanded that Lewis voluntarily resign.  Furthermore, as a result of this unprecedented business debacle, Kenneth Feinberg, the government pay czar overseeing executive compensation of financial institutions that received TARP (government bailout) funds, recommended that Lewis relinquish his 2009 salary and bonus.  Rather than fight the issue, Lewis has agreed to take no compensation for 2009, and pay back the $1 million dollars in salary that he has already received for the year.

OK, so you are saying to yourself, “Finally, one of these guys will not get paid for screwing up!”

Well, not everyone is in agreement with you.  Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management in Evansville, Ind., responded to the news of Lewis’ not being paid his salary for 2009, by saying, “[i]t’s punitive and it’s mean-spirited, and it’s an attitude that will send shivers through every person who does business with the government or is regulated by the government.”

After a comment like Mr. Donaldson’s, I just hope bankers never have the audacity to come asking for an umbrella from the U.S. taxpayers one more time.  It will be a cold day in Hell when we ever quietly acquiesce to our government bailing them out again.