The government rescued Bank of America on Friday through a $20 billion bailout and a guarantee for almost $100 billion of potential losses on toxic assets.
The move was desperately needed to cushion the blow from a deteriorating balance sheet at Merrill Lynch & Co, its recently acquired brokerage.
The bailout makes Bank of America the biggest recipient of taxpayer money next to Citigroup as the government pours cash into the nation's banks to plug holes left by bad loans.
The capital is on top of $25 billion that Bank of America previously got from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October and is the latest indication that authorities are still struggling to come to grips with the financial crisis that began about 18 months ago.
And that leads to our Fast Money Reader Poll. Overall, do you approve of the way the feds are handling the financial crisis?
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