John Thain, formerly of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, talks about the companies' merger back in late October. Clearly Thain is very excited in this video interview about the prospect of passing off Merrill Lynch's sizable sub-prime mortgage exposure to Bank of America. Unfortunately, there's more to this story, which did not begin to unfold until December.

Watch the Believability Meter when Thain says that he thinks the actions of federal government regarding TARP "really does solve the fundamental problem in the U.S. banking system." Not likely. Perhaps Thain knew even then that Merrill Lynch stood to lose an additional $15 billion in the fourth quarter of last year (a fact undisclosed to Bank of America until after the sale was nearly finalized).

Given Thain's rosy outlook about his own future, doesn't it seem strange that things for everyone else have gotten so much worse? Raise your hand if you didn't see that coming.