Matters in own hands

Bank of America’s directors have failed the firm’s shareholders yet again. They had plenty of ammunition to justify ditching chairman and chief executive Ken Lewis. And there was no lack of potential replacements. Shamefully, the board that let Lewis run amok and led to $250bn of value destruction left him firmly ensconced at the helm. Take your pick of Lewis’s recent missteps. He paid a 70% premium for Merrill Lynch in some of the darkest days of the credit crisis. Worse, the due diligence o...