Why doesn't BofA sell Black Rock stake?

AnUntil this morning, I had somehow forgotten that BofA, having swallowed Merrill Lynch but not quite digested it, thereby inherited a huge chunk of BlackRock. Now, it's been clear for a long time the BlackRock and PIMCO were ideally positioned to do well in the TARP-PPIP environment, and they've been doing well.

So if BofA is divesting itself of CCB for $7 billion to get its stress test money, why shouldn't it also dump BlackRock. In fact, if the government is in a strong-armish mood, witness its treatment of Ken Lewis in December and Rick Wagoner more recently (not that either episode made me lose sleep), this should be the occasion for twist an arm and force BofA to raise money by selling its BlackRock. I mean, talk about conflict of interest, of piece of BofA -- the BlackRock Toxic Avengers -- in the driver's seat valuing the degraded assets of the old Merrill book.

Another thing that's been bothering me: How BofA / Merrill Lynch has decided to plump up First Republic as its wealth management arm. Never mind the difficulties with integrating US Trust, BofA Private Client, Merrill Wealth Management, etc., they're just pushing out First Republic as a main brand as if to wipe the slate clean, even though you can see the little Merrill Lynch down at the foot of the page. It's just silly.