I have seen the future, and it is Rollerball.
I don't mean the carnage-crazy sport played by James Caan in the 1975 movie. I mean the film's depiction of life in 2018, when "corporate wars" have left the world controlled not by governments but by business monopolies -- Energy, Transport, Food, Communications, Housing and Luxury.
Bank of America Corp.'s multibillion-dollar takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. is the latest in a string of breathtaking acquisitions that has created a financial powerhouse so vast it seems well on its way to becoming a seventh heavyweight on the Rollerball global-domination list: Money.
Once the Merrill buyout is complete, BofA will rank as the country's largest retail bank, the largest credit card issuer, the largest mortgage provider and the largest retail brokerage. The bank has about 59 million consumer and small-business accounts, roughly $163 billion in credit card loans and more than 6,000 branches. [Read story at LosAngelesTimes.com/by David Lazarus].
Posted by firstent
at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 1 October 2008 9:13 PM PDT
