Indeed. Lehman Brothers is going under and Merrill Lynch is being bought out by Bank of America. If you have mutual funds or a 401K, you may want to check whether you just took a serious financial beating. b,121b,121You know it's bad when Greenspan says we're in the sort of economic maelstrom that occurs once every century and that it's going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe much worse.
in my understanding, Lehman Bros mostly serviced 'institutional investors' which basically means img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dominoes22.gif" alt="" 21
Quote:/font1h,121b,121Indeed. Lehman Brothers is going under and Merrill Lynch is being bought out by Bank of America. If you have mutual funds or a 401K, you may want to check whether you just took a serious financial beating. b,121b,121You know it's bad when Greenspan says we're in the sort of economic maelstrom that occurs once every century and that it's going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe much worse. b,121b,121h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121This is some serious cause for concern. Hopefully the strategies to minimize the effects of the tanking economy hold up. Yikes.
Quote:/font1h,121b,121b,121b,121"The 158-year-old firm, which survived railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, filed a Chapter 11 petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan today. The collapse of Lehman, which listed more than $613 billion of debt, dwarfs WorldCom Inc.'s insolvency in 2002 and Drexel Burnham Lambert's failure in 1990." b,121b,121h,121
Plaese to shed no tears for Lehmans. Be more worried that Merrills has had to seek shelter at BoA.b,121b,121The one good thing that will come out of this turmoil is that the big-bonus culture stands a good chance of being killed. It's a cancer in the industry.b,121b,121What REALLY needs to happen is that the big bosses who sanctioned the lunacy of the last 10 years be held properly accountable - i.e. their huge payoffs, pensions and bank balance be suitably trimmed.
Quote:/font1h,121b,121b,121What REALLY needs to happen is that the big bosses who sanctioned the lunacy of the last 10 years be held properly accountable - i.e. their huge payoffs, pensions and bank balance be suitably trimmed. b,121b,121h,121
Quote:/font1h,121b,121/font1Quote:/font1h,121b,121b,121What REALLY needs to happen is that the big bosses who sanctioned the lunacy of the last 10 years be held properly accountable - i.e. their huge payoffs, pensions and bank balance be suitably trimmed. b,121b,121h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121dream on. b,121b,121h,121font class="post"1b,121b,121not really.b,121b,121/font1
Quote:/font1h,121b,121The government yesterday said it would not allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to pay their departing chief executives the separation payments, known as "golden parachutes," outlined in their contracts.b,121b,121h,121
so they'll get 6 million severance instead of 10 or whatever. they won't get the golden parachutes that they originally negotiated for, but these guys will retire extremely rich people (or move onto another institution for an equally outrageous salary/bonus). I swear sometimes I feel like there's no accountability at all in these industries.
I can't pretend to understand all of this, but it looks pretty fusking dire:b,121b,121a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/markets/markets_newyork2/index.htm?cnn=yes" target="_blank"1http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/markets/markets_newyork2/index.htm?cnn=yes/a1b,121b,121Wall Street sees worst day since just after 9/11 attacks, with Dow down 500 points, as financials melt down.b,121b,121NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tanked Monday, as investors reeled amid the fallout from the largest financial crisis in years after Lehman Brothers filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history and Bank of America said it would buy Merrill Lynch in a $50 billion deal.b,121b,121Treasury prices rallied as investors sought the comparative safety of government debt, sending the corresponding yields lower. Oil prices tumbled, falling well below $100 a barrel on slowing global economic growth. The dollar rallied versus other major currencies and gold prices spiked.b,121b,121The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 500 points, or 4.4%, according to early tallies. It was the biggest one-day point decline for the Dow since Sept. 17, 2001, when the market reopened for trading after having been closed in the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks.b,121b,121The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index lost 4.5% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 3.6%.b,121b,121Global markets tumbled as investors reeled after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch was forced to sell itself to Bank of America and investors awaited AIG's restructuring announcement.b,121b,121Worries in the afternoon focused around Dow-component insurer AIG, which has been scrambling to raise enough cash to fend off ratings agency downgrades and stay afloat.b,121b,121In the afternoon, N.Y. Gov. David Paterson said AIG will be allowed to use $20 billion in assets through its subsidiaries to stay afloat, basically providing itself with a bridge loan. AIG has also reportedly asked the Federal Reserve for a roughly $40 billion bridge loan over the weekend.b,121b,121Meanwhile, Reuters reported that sources say talks with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway about investing in AIG have ended.b,121b,121Shares of AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) were down 52%, near where they stood before the announcement.b,121b,121Still, some analysts said that the stock selloff could have been worse, considering the depth of the problems.b,121b,121"You have to throw out the history books because there's really nothing to compare this to," said Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Advisors.b,121b,121Art Hogan, chief market strategist for Jefferies & Co., said the magnitude of the financial industry fallout is unprecedented, and could only be compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s or the railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s.b,121b,121"We've never witnessed this before," said Hogan. "There's no road map for this."
Word around the office (talking heads) is that Merrill won't get anywhere near the $27 BOA offered. Stakeholder at BOA will hardly approve a buy-out of that amount when the fair market value is probably closer to $14 a share.b,121b,121If i had extra money, i might try to short Merrill now and go long on BOA. But in all honesty, nothing seems like a good investment these days.
Quote:/font1h,121b,121I'm hearing much talk about Washington Mutual being the next big failure.b,121b,121brace yourself for worse times b,121b,121h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121I heard Wamu was solid but don't quote me. You're never sure how far this domino effect will go.
Quote:/font1h,121b,121I'm hearing much talk about Washington Mutual being the next big failure.b,121b,121brace yourself for worse times b,121b,121h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121I'd be surprised if this happened (but wouldn't put it past us either). WAMU has made some decent adjustments over the past few weeks and most of the other S&L's are not nearly teetering on the same levels as the brokerage firms.
Quote:/font1h,121b,121/font1Quote:/font1h,121b,121I'm hearing much talk about Washington Mutual being the next big failure.b,121b,121brace yourself for worse times b,121b,121h,121
Quote:/font1h,121b,121/font1Quote:/font1h,121b,121I'm hearing much talk about Washington Mutual being the next big failure.b,121b,121brace yourself for worse times b,121b,121h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121s1I'd be surprised if this happened (but wouldn't put it past us either). WAMU has made some decent adjustments over the past few weeks and most of the other S&L's are not nearly teetering on the same levels as the brokerage firms. b,121b,121h,121font class="post"1b,121b,121I'd like an extra serving of Crow with that please.b,121b,121a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awDjhtIfoz_Q" target="_blank"1JUNKYARD/a1b,121b,121b,121Lord help us if we have a bank-run.
Quote:/font1h,121b,121How is Wells Fargo doing? b,121b,121h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121As far as I've heard/ read Wells is holding up rather well.b,121b,121This is where I keep my money/ investments so I got an eye on this one for sure
"Nonetheless, this still leaves $2,500bn in uninsured deposits. If a high-profile failure causes these uninsured deposits to shift abruptly in a flight to safety, it could be highly destabilising for the banking system."b,121b,121How can there be $2.5 billion in uninsured funds? If I had a million dollars in the bank you bet your ass it would be spread across 11 or 12 accounts to meet FDIC requirements.
Quote:/font1h,121b,121WaMu should be FDIC insured, no? b,121b,121h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121b,121yes so if you got less than 200g's in an account there you should be safe, not sure how it shapes up on investments though.b,121b,121The gov't was really kind with Indymac in terms of returning money to those with accounts that were non-FDIC (giving .50 on the dollar when they didn't have to pay out anything at all) but I don't think this kind of kindness will continue with every bank (and thats only if they decide to take it over and not just let it fail)b,121b,121once again though we are just in the speculation period and WaMu hasn't failed yet
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