Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

by Michael Lewis

Then came the financial crisis, and, in 2008, the acquisition, by Bank of America, of a collapsing Merrill Lynch. What happened next upended Schwall’s worldview. Merrill Lynch had been among the most prolific creators of the very worst subprime mortgage bonds. Had they been left to the mercy of the market—had Bank of America not saved them—the Merrill Lynch people would have been tossed out on the street. Instead, right before their acquisition, they awarded themselves massive bonuses that Bank of America wound up having to pay. “It was incredibly unfair,” said Schwall. “It was incredibly unjust. My stock in this company I helped to build for nine years goes into the shitter, and these assholes pay themselves record bonuses. It was a fucking crime.” Even more incredibly, the Merrill Lynch people ended up in charge of Bank of America’s equity division and set about firing most of the people in it. A lot of those people had been good, loyal employees of the bank.