Wow, participating in Tim Geithner's public-private partnership must be a real mark of shame. During its conference call, Bank of America (BAC) made an impish admition that yes, it does have toxic assets to sell. CEO Ken Lewis couldn't have been more squishy when he was asked about the bank's stance.
"At this point, it's not been finalized [the details]... any program that adds to price discovery in the marketplace will be helpful... Our inclination would be to give it a small trial run."
Translation, yes we have toxic assets to sale. But we really don't want to admit that we want to sell them or anything until we absolutely we have to and we're sure we can get the price we want.
Remember, JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon scoffed at PPIP, saying it wasn't really addressing the core of the problem and that they wouldn't participate as a buyer or a seller. GE (GE) on the other hand said they'd be a buyer, not a seller.
