It does make sense to me and I can see why the PR's are being set up they way are. When Wells Fargo bought Wachovia, they knew they were going to get a Worthless Stock deduction on Wachovia, so they did the deal.
IRS announced that companies that bought troubled banks, like Wells Fargo buying Wachovia, would receive enormous tax benefits as a reward for helping stave off a collapse of the entire global banking system. In a sense, Wells Fargo was able to use these tax breaks to get Wachovia for free.
JPM did not buy WMB on the market, they bought it through a FDIC receivership, that means "no tax benefits to JPM" but plenty of Tax benefits to the holding company that owned WMB.
Sometimes You Just Have to See the Light Thru the Trees !!!
