Turbulence In The Banking Industry

We’re talking about Bank of American slashing 30,000 jobs and what it means.

Bank of America, the biggest bank in the country, announced this week it is cutting thirty thousand jobs. 30,000. That is a number big enough to get anyone’s attention. The biggest jobs cutback announced in the country this year. What does it mean?

Well, a lot of pain for a lot of families. A lot of pain at Bank of America, which built an empire with way to much bad mortgage debt.

Is there more to come? At other banks? Is it the end of “too big to fail”? Of the financialization of the American economy? We’ll ask.

This hour On Point: Bank of America’s job cuts, and what they mean.
-Tom Ashbrook

Paul Barrett, assistant managing editor at Bloomberg Businessweek. His cover story, for this week’s issue is "Can Brian Moynihan Save Bank of America?"

Louise Story, business reporter for the New York Times.

Campbell Harvey, professor of international business at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Bloomberg Business Week "For now, Bank of America will not go the way of Lehman or Bear. It has $400 billion in cash and liquid investments and, more important, with $2.3 trillion in assets, it exemplifies the sorry concept of “too big to fail.” No matter what anyone says to the contrary, the U.S. government cannot afford to allow a financial institution of that size to go down and drag the rest of the country with it. "

Associated Press "Bank of America is slashing 30,000 jobs as part of an effort to reverse a crisis of confidence among investors. It's the largest single job reduction by a U.S. company this year"

Wall Street Journal "A following phase of the project will seek to reduce part of the bank's $28 billion in expenses on commercial banking, wealth management, corporate banking and investment banking. The bank didn't specify a target or job cuts for those lines of business, but said the cuts would be smaller."