Late last year, the American Banker of the Year awards were held, and the winner was Ken Lewis .  Fast forward and his decisions on Merrill Lynch, China Construction Bank and  Countrywide are being put together a call for his resignation.  In particular the article notes somewhat to my surprise that BofA were not pressed into taking over Merrill – this was done voluntarily.

In any event the armchair quarterbacks are out in force.  The strategic opportunities of China, Mortgages, and brokerages were 100% accepted as valid at the time by commentators, newspapers, government and industry.  The problems that arose in 2007 were universal, and systemic of a broken banking and brokerage model – a systemic problem in the interdependencies of members of the world financial system that was not understood.

More important to my mind will be how Lewis deals with the current crisis.