Financial Fascism: Bank of America, which was coerced into buying Merrill Lynch during the 2008 financial crisis, is now quietly dissolving the storied 99-year-old investment bank. This is destruction, and not the creative kind.

As if the U.S. government's $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program weren't bad enough just as a bailout, there's the specter and now fallout of government meddling on a scale that can only be compared to Mussolini's corporate state.

In the panic of the 2008 financial crisis, solvent BofA was ordered by government regulators to purchase Merrill Lynch, a bank it didn't want, for $18.5 billion.

After that, it was forced to take $45 billion in TARP funds it didn't want, under a threat that if it didn't take the funds, and if anything bad turned up in the future, the Fed would sing at its funeral.

The bank complied and is now opting to dissolve Merrill. Oh, it will keep the brand for its retail brokerage and investment arm, but in reality the dissolution destroys the value of one of Wall Street's most storied firms.

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Merrill was too big to fail, but not too big to quietly brush under the rug when no one is looking 5 years later.

What I am wondering is who ended up owning or controlling all their assets both here and in foreign countries,and why no mention is made of who "bought" up this inventory at a penny on the dollar.