Charles Schwab (SCHW) has announced its decision to acquire optionsXpress (OXPS) in a friendly all-stock deal. This deal will help Schwab compete with other firms like E-Trade (ETFC), Ameritrade (AMTD), and Bank of America (BAC), which all have large online brokerage services and are vying to provide investors with the best tools and services.

The deal, which is expected to close by the third quarter of 2011, will cost Schwab $1 billion, and the company will issue 60 million new shares to swap each outstanding share of optionsXpress with 1.02 of its own shares. Our $19.74 price estimate for Charles Schwab is at a premium of almost 12% to its current market value.

It all started during the financial crisis. Banks and brokerage houses were tumbling down one after another. One of the biggest was the collapse of Merrill Lynch. Bank of America (BAC) negotiated the purchase of Merrill, but there was one hitch. BofA failed to appraise its stockholders that Merrill had approved $5.8 billion in bonuses to Merrill employees.

The agreement was struck. Everything was kept under the table until the SEC started an investigation into the matter. The SEC is famous for just giving a slap on the wrist to the biggest offenders. In this case the SEC agreed that BofA should pay a measly $33 million fine.

John Thain -- whom you may recall as the man who presided over the spectacular implosion of Merrill Lynch -- is looking to have some new business cards printed up. Over the weekend, CIT Group (CIT) officially announced that its board of directors has elected Thain as chairman and CEO.

Due to his controversial past, the decision to elect Thain wasn't an easy one. After shelling out a small fortune to tart up his office digs at Merrill Lynch -- and doling out lofty bonuses amid the bank's hasty takeover by Bank of America (BAC) -- Thain became something of a poster boy for Wall Street excesses.

Were we all too fast to blame AIG (AIG)?

The insurance giant's role in precipitating the worldwide financial crisis has been covered at length since it teetered on the edge of disaster in September 2008, thanks to a series of high-risk transactions executed through its financial products group. Well, Goldman Sachs (GS), which has recovered quickly from last year's woes and is already figuring out how to pay some hefty bonuses, may have played a larger role in these transactions than everyone realized.

The bailouts of late 2008 and 2009 have cost the American taxpayers $61 billion, according to the Treasury Department, but the banks aren't to blame this time. The auto manufacturer bailout, which includes Chrysler and General Motors (GRM), has cost the country more than $30 billion, with American International Group (AIG) consuming another $30 billion.

Meanwhile, Bank of America (BAC) has already made good with the government, and several banks -- such as Capital One (COF), JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and TCF Financial (TCB) -- only have to clean up situations regarding the warrants they've issued. And interestingly, the losses from the bailouts on AIG and auto manufacturers are being offset by profits from the bank bailouts, which could generate additional funds of up to $19.5 billion.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Bank of America (BAC) might not announce a replacement for departing CEO Ken Lewis until Thanksgiving.

Now Thanksgiving has come and gone, and there is still no word of a new CEO for Bank of America.

"The selection process is continuing, internal and external candidates are being considered and a decision will be made in the near future," BofA spokesman Scott Silvestri told CNBC, which is speculating that the process could linger on into next year.

The latest study that Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed to BloggingStocks reports that October was the eighth month this year in which CEO turnover was down year-over-year. Through the end of last month, 1,028 CEO positions changed hands -- down 18% from the 1,257 by the same point in 2008. In fact, the tally for the first 10 months of 2009 is the lowest since 2004, when the big office found only 561 new inhabitants.

The financial industry remains the toughest place for CEOs, with 19 leaving the job last month. Even though the situation has gotten easier, this industry still has the highest turnover. For the year, approximately 10% of all CEO departures (106) have been in the financial sector. "The financial industry is still incredibly volatile, as both October and September saw major announcements from leading companies including JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and last month's bankruptcy of CIT Group, which led to the exit of CEO Jeffrey Peek," John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, says.

If you've become comfortable with the current state of the housing market ... don't. Economists at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Bank of America's Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC) say there's still plenty of risk in the housing market.

Alec Phillips, the head of Goldman's Washington office, said, "The risk of renewed home price declines remains significant." His "working assumption" is a drop of between 5% and 10% by the middle of next year.