Wasn't Wells Fargo one of the banks that was in excellent financial health before during and after the housing bubble? I suspect they'll do well throughout. Bobble?Quote:
Originally Posted by HowardRoark
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Wasn't Wells Fargo one of the banks that was in excellent financial health before during and after the housing bubble? I suspect they'll do well throughout. Bobble?Quote:
Originally Posted by HowardRoark
Oil is almost back under $100 a barrel...soon people will be buying SUV's again! Now if the stock market would start going back up!
I would expect the stock market to rise with every inflow of Fed cash, like it did after the Freddie/Fannie bailout. If/When Lehman Bros. and the big three automakers get slopped at the Fed trough, expect short term gains.Quote:
Originally Posted by LL2
Bad news is it's likely to fall again right after because the fundamentals are so bad.
I think they are going to let Lehman die......Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxie the Taxi
I'd be surprised. The discount window's open, so Lehman (or a purchaser) can mop up directly on Fed "loans." Would fly beneath the media radar.Quote:
Originally Posted by HowardRoark
That's true on the window, but I think they are cooked. The ultimate margin call, they have to sell all they have left...Neuberger Berman.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxie the Taxi
It almost seems as though the Fed has to let one fail, and they have indicated they would let firms fail, in order to prove they aren't bailing out the whole country.
Very scary. I think I read somewhere this morning the nation's largest S&L is on the brink of failure.
Is anyone else here of the opinion that the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Departments are in complete disarray?
I've never seen anything like it. It's like we have no capable leadership whatsoever.
This stuff isn't Monopoly money. It represents the hard-earned income of the American people. The enormous financial commitments that the Fed is assuming will affect the wealth of families for generations.
What's taking place isn't receiving the scrutiny that it deserves because it's currently an election cycle, however, the financial policy decisions being made now will be felt for decades.
I have zero confidence in the Fed's leadership right now. It is reactionary and very unprincipled and we are going to be the poorer for it.
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Originally Posted by Kiwon
I'm lobbying the Feds to bail me out of my cable bill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Campbell
That's exactly the mentality that they are fostering.
Privatizing profits while socializing losses and risk is schizophrenic.
What's the point of working hard when you can't keep what you earn and what's taken from you to given to the non-productive or mismanaged parts of society?
Things could get very ugly in the morning.....look out below!
Looks as though Merrill is going to be bought out by Bank of America at $29.
Also looks like LEH is history:
Futures are down 253.Quote:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare emergency trading session opened Sunday afternoon to allow Wall Street dealers in the $455 trillion derivatives market reduce their exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers.
U.S. regulators and bankers were making last-ditch efforts on Sunday to prevent toxic assets from ailing Lehman Brothers spilling into global markets and rupturing investor faith in the international financial system.
"This is an extremely, and I stress extremely, rare event. It also speaks to the more general notion that, in today's highly disrupted financial markets, the unthinkable is thinkable," said Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of Pimco, the world's biggest bond fund, based in Newport Beach , California .
The session opened at 2 p.m. and was due to run until 4 p.m. New York time (1800 to 2000 GMT), according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. See text. ISDA later extended it for another two hours.
Trading involved credit, equity, rates, foreign exchange and commodity derivatives. ISDA confirmed a "netting trading session" was taking place for over-the-counter derivatives, in which trades that offset each other are settled.
ISDA estimates the OTC derivatives market excluding commodities has a value of $455 trillion.
Market sources said the special session was initiated by the Federal Reserve. Which means they are going to let them fail and want to reduce the damage.
The aim is to reduce risk associated with a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
"Trades are contingent on a bankruptcy filing at or before 11:59 p.m. New York time Sunday (0359 GMT)," said the statement. "If there is no filing, the trades cease to exist."
"Lehman Brothers....How the 158-year-year institution came to this is a tale of hubris and overreaching -- and a big dose of bad luck.
Lehman's fall from grace was brutally fast. Until June, it had never even reported a quarterly loss as a public company."
Unreal. Now it's on the verge of collapse. Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. I wonder how many of my mutual funds have Lehman as part of their portfolios. :(
http://www.reuters.com/article/reute...41059120080914
Freak Out,
Old pal, old buddy, got any gold that you want to share?
I sold all my paper awhile back ($960) and a little hard stock to the local assayer...but still have some buried in the back yard. Holding for now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiwon
I was hoping for an end of the year rebound in the market, but that is looking less and less likely. Thank God I still have 25 years before I hit retirement age, but my goal is to do it in 15 years.
I've steered clear of this thread up to now.
What are Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch anyway? What is the business that makes them most of their income?
They all three are/were stock brokerage houses. Their business is basically RETAIL SALES--earning commissions by selling shares of stock to individuals.
WHY are they now going belly up? I would content that it isn't an economic thing so much as it is a MARKETING thing. These are old line companies that have NOT adjusted to modern trends.
Ameritrade, Scottrade, E-trade, Charles Schwab, etc. are in the same business, and they are doing very well. Why? Because they have been innovative, and they have offered people extremely low-commission trading, mainly on the internet. TD Waterhouse--another old line company, merged with Ameritrade, thus keeping its name alive.
To the extent that these firms are in banking at all, it is INVESTMENT BANKING--which basically means marketing bonds for corporations. It is a fiction to claim life savings are being lost, etc. with failure of these companies--unless somebody has their savings directly invested in the stock of the failing firm.
Failure to identify trends and keep up with the times is NOT a justification for a government bailout.
This is basically wrong. Bear Stearns and Lehman did NOT have a retail "wealth management" division. Merrill did/does....which is really the only thing they had of value, BUT it did allow them to survive.Quote:
Originally Posted by texaspackerbacker
The investment banking side of the business is the side that went belly up. Because they leveraged 30-40 times securitized toxic mortgages. That crap had to be "marked to market" on their balance sheets.....they imploded.
Investment banking basically IS retail--but with bonds rather than common stock. You may be right about Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers being out of the retail stock brokerage business in recent times, but go back far enough, and that was their bread and butter too.
The only connection of this with mortgage banking is the secondary market--providing funding through bonds to the mortgage providers. As those primary mortgage companies suffer, their bonds may go into default. Even that, though, shouldn't fall back on these companies, as they are not bondholders so much as bond sellers.
There are a million articles describing what has gone on out there over the past 14 months.......read one of them. I am not being a smart ass, but just about everything you said above is misguided.Quote:
Originally Posted by texaspackerbacker
Read one by Meredith Whitney....she's easy on the eyes.