Who's Next on the Corporate CEO Chopping Block?

by: ZP Heller

Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 18:30

Now that Rick Wagoner is out at GM, my money is on Lewis as the next corporate CEO on the chopping block.  As David Sirota pointed out recently, it will be a tragic double standard if the White House doesn't call for Lewis's resignation at this point.  Bank of America's bailout abuses, continued predatory lending, and other wasteful corporate practices have been so atrocious that the best defense Thad Woodard, CEO of the N.C. Bankers Association, could muster for Lewis to keep his job was, "I can tell you right now that Ken Lewis is not Satan."  That bit of praise was by far the most amusing moment from yesterday's "Power Lunch," though a close second was when Woodard ganged up with the show's hosts to twist calls for Lewis's resignation into an attack on unions.

The bottom line, as Lerner suggested, is the American people need to see some accountability and responsibility from our banks.  That's right, "our banks," since tens of billions of our tax dollars went into saving Bank of America, thereby making the government (and us) a major shareholder. Check out SEIU's Fire Ken Lewis campaign, and stay tuned as populist outrage over corporate excess fuels a national day of demonstrations next week, calling on Bank of America to kick Lewis to the curb.