In other business news, a federal judge has overturned a $33 million settlement between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission over the $3.6 billion bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives just before the bank’s takeover by Bank of America. Judge Rakoff questioned why the SEC didn’t file charges against individual executives at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch who allegedly filed faulty disclosures to mislead investors about the size of the bonuses. Rakoff said of the settlement, “It is not fair, first and foremost, because it does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality, in that it proposes that the shareholders who were the victims of the Bank’s alleged misconduct now pay the penalty for that misconduct.”