Though the number is huge — $6.2 billion — this morning's third-quarter profit news from Bank of America is generating a lot of "yeah, but" analyses.
As in:
-- "It booked that profit largely on selling a bunch of assets and an accounting bonus to account for the declining value of its debt." (The Wall Street Journal)
-- "The quarter's results were skewed by one-time pretax gains including $4.5 billion in fair-value adjustments of structured liabilities, $3.6 billion from selling a stake in China Construction Bank Corp. and $1.7 billion tied to changes in value of the company's debt." (Bloomberg Businessweek)
-- "Stripping out a litany of exceptional items, from a $3.6 billion gain due to the CCB stake sale to a $4.5 billion boost from an accounting rule that allows banks to book a profit on the falling value of their own debt, BofA's businesses produced a loss." (The Financial Times)
The bank's recent announcement of plans to charge many customers $5 a month if they make purchases with their debit cards has not gone over well with some folks, including President Obama.
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