The Chairman of the Fed defends himself

Ben Bernanke was appearing in front of the Congress on June 25th regarding his role in the merger of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. He is being accused of pressuring, and threatening to fire the Chief Executive of Bank of America, if the company decide to "pull out of the deal".
Edmund Andrews gives a report on the matter to Jeff Summer of the New York podcats. The Federal reserve and the treasury have intervened more than once in the bail out of big Banks since the economic crisis. The merger of Bank of America and Merill Lynch is being seen as a "messy business" because Merill Lynch has incurred huge losses and to avoid the collapse of this huge financial institution Bank of America is to take over of Merill Lynch. But as it is reported in the podcast, the Federal Reserve has been to "secretive to the regulatory agencies about Merill Lynch losses". The merger does not seem to be of an interest to Bank of America but since the Fed wants to avoid the collapse of Merill Lynch, Ben Bernanke is supposedly pressuring the Chief executive as well as the board of Bank of America to seal the deal.
The latest bail out of the banks by the Fed have been viewed differently by the Republicans and the Democrats. As Edmund says in the report "Republicans are out for blood", they disapprove the Fed "authority in regulating important institutions" and also the President Obama's plan of "arming private institutions". For the Republican the government interference can be the reason why Merill Lynch has collapsed compare to the inadequate regulations of the government. For the Democrats the Fed did not do enough to resolve Merill Lynch issue.
Even though the bail out of Banks by the Fed and the treasury is a controversy, it has helped "stop the free fall of the financial institution" and bring the economy in a "plain fashion recession" as it said by Edmund Andrews.
At this point some programs are being held and even suppressed, but the one that is still in process are loaned such as, consumer loan, business loan as well as mortgage loan that will be finance by the Fed and the treasury, a program of $30 billion to trillion.