I doubt that his bonus is still worth $22MM. All of his options are worthless and his cash portion was probably $10MM at the most. I would have more problems if that was his severance package a la Fannie and Freddie. This is a much different situation than Enron and you can't really compare the two because the Enron executives were making huge bonuses based on fraud. LEH was actually making money, they just weren't prepared for the future.
so now merrill is back down near the lows of friday. it is trading at like a 35% discount to the buyout price. the market is calling bs on the bac deal.
HP laying off 24,600 people after realizing that EDS was a bag of crap. You still think the economy isn't so bad, McCain? Even those of us that think we have job security now have to start thinking twice.
People are now starting to speculate that Goldman Sach's ain't so hot ... if GS misses estimates tomorrow there will be mayhem.
To what truth are you referring? Who's whining? I'm congratulating the Democrats for their "new"politics...
did you see all the crazy closing prints in the reits at the close? it was really like forced selling with how far those guys printed down. like spg printed down 10 points. i'm sure there will be more to come as lehman unwinds.
Last few minutes of the session were epic crazy ... there was definitely some forced selling going on as many major support levels were breached. The worst part is that the S&P closed below 1200, and unless something drastic happens tomorrow like the Fed cutting by 50 basis points it's going to make a beeline for 1175.
it's looking more and more like wamu is among the walking dead. it could deplete the fdic. good times.
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/othercities/eastbay/stories/2008/09/15/daily19.html Looks like JPM is still waiting to pick up the pieces of WaMu. And now it's looking a lot like they'll get an even better deal than BSC. I'm sure they'll do the deal in the interest of not slapping the FDIC with a $24 billion bill. JPM wins again.
When everyone is selling, start buying. I mean the big banks will take out the competition and be stronger in the long run.
I think we reached panic selling today. The VIX indicates panic, and usually that is a good time to mark a market low.
I sort of agree ... today was the very definition of panic. If all goes well, GS will beat estimates tomorrow and the Fed will cut rates 25%. Then the bottom will have finally arrived. On the other hand, GS could miss estimates, AIG could go under, and JPM could refuse to buy WM. Then you'll start to see people jumping off buildings.
when does GS report? tomorrow before the open or after the close. i'm hoping after the close. and when is the fed meeting and when would they announce any cut or non-cut?
GS reports before open. Any Fed action will be following an emergency meeting. They don't have anything scheduled this week afaik.
The Fed can not cut the rates again. It might be a bitter pill, but it might it needs to be done at some point. There is too much crap as level 3 assets etc. to bail everyone out.
Regardless of what happens tomorrow, it's not the bottom. Still a lot of toxic debt out there that is sitting on balance sheets over valued. I've heard that there is something like 1 trillion in toxic debt out there and so far 350 billion has been written off. We should see the bottom some time next year
Looks like McCain thinks that the economy is "fundamentally strong." How can he say that today with a straight face? The pure play IB sector is nearly dead, the two largest mortgage guarantors failed, and there is still a huge lack of liquidity in the commercial banking system. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Sen. John McCain struggled Monday for a consistent economic message in the face of the weekend's Wall Street meltdown, saying first that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" and then abruptly shifting to say the fundamentals are "at great risk." At a morning rally in Jacksonville, McCain noted what he called "tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street,'' but continued to say he believes the economy is sound -- a line from his stump speech for which Democrats have mocked him. "Our economy, I think, is still -- the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times,'' McCain said. "I promise you, we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/th...in_fundamentals_of_economy.html?tid=informbox
Is McCain for real? Really? Is he just completely senile or something? Even T_J must be struggling with some serious cognitive dissonance at this point.
cya aig....now we find out what will be able to last and what is held up by a pyramid of turtles all the way down.
