OT---Lehman, Merrill Going Down

noncompos · Sep 14, 2008

For anyone not following the street over the weekend, it looks like Lehman will file Bkcy (or maybe has)(probably the holding Co, with subsid staying in operation?) and Merrill going to BofA (the good part) and to--guess who??--as to the bad part.
Everything apparently fluid, but AM should be interesting...
Roubini (sp??)being his usual upbeat self...good luck to us all.

Spook · Sep 15, 2008

I think Lehman will have a lot of company in the next few months. I think a lot of people will be hurt by this, and that is not good for anybody. I have talked to several financial "advisors" recently. We had accounts years back at AIG. For some reason these idiots are calling me, after I cashed all thier stuff out. BTW, AIG is a major pia to get your money back from. I rolled over our accounts to a fidelity account, and AIG was throwing every possible roadblock in my way. It took months, and the threat of a lawyer. Now they want me to buy their funds, which aren't doing well, and paying their stupid, expensive sales charges.

Bottom line: Hold onto your seat, gentlemen, it's a wild ride!!

T_Bone · Sep 15, 2008

Well I was just reading the AP wire and Lehman is filing bankruptcy tomorrow on there realestate side of the business. What's really dumb of Lehman as they had a chance to get saved earlier but noo they were just hunky dorey and didn't need help. Then when they admitted defeat and wanted to sell, they way over priced the sales amount and had no takers.

This weekend, the Feds let 10 major banks have $80b to bail out smaller banks of their choosing.

Can we say down market tomorrow???

Wasn't it Lehman that lied to Congress on thier hedge funds driving the market down???

T_Bone

NawlensGator · Sep 15, 2008

Their balance sheet was smoke and mirrors. Lending money with crazy repayment terms expecting ever rising real estate values to cover their stupidity has caught up with them. The outstanding debt is more than the real estate is worth in many cases and intersest rates are reseting above 10%. Serves the greedy bandits right.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2008

Next time you hear someone talking about welfare for people just remind them that all these bale outs are the biggest welfare this country has ever witnessed. It's called corporate welfare and will come out of the tax payers pockets for the next 50-75 years.

Traditional Farmer · Sep 15, 2008

If anyone is still sucker enough to still be trusting their wealth with the 'financial experts' of the world they deserve to loose their $$$$.Of course as P.T.Barnum correctly observed years ago...............

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2008

Failure is part of the capitalist system. If you can't have failure you can't have success.

sbin · Sep 15, 2008

2006 Lehman, Merril and Goldman passed out $36 billion in bonus money because they "made" so much money.Not only should no taxpayers money be handed over criminal and civil prosecution should be forth coming.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2008

Yup, we've heard it all.

"You are in it for the long term."

"If you are not in the market you are not going to make money."

"Lost opportunity Costs."

When they estimate earnings they forget to add in all the fees and taxes that will be taken out before you get your gain or in many cases losses.

Stay away from mutuals as you take all the risks and all the middle men and IRS take all the profits.

fixerupper · Sep 15, 2008

Well said. Jim

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2008

What time is it there.
L.Bros. has packed it in. M. Lynch grabbed for a song by B of America.
L.B Aust. taken off Stock Ex. 120 workers waiting for advice from H.O. but seeing H.O.employees packing their goods into cars, doesn't look good.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2008

They say AIG may be worse than Lehmans so the dominoes are getting lined up for more.Lots are calling this the worst financial mess since the great depression.I wonder if its time to have a little extra cash on hand.

rrlund · Sep 15, 2008

True enough. These things just get top heavy from getting too big. There's a lot to be said for caution and being conservative as well as for having a lot of smaller businesses vs a few giants.

rrlund · Sep 15, 2008

This kind of thing is the ONLY thing that keeps me farming. I'd love to sell everything and live on the interest,but I'm scared to death of having everything in paper assets. At least with land and livestock,it's all right here in my control and doesn't depend on somebody elses promise to pay. Sure is a pain in the @ss most days though.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2008

Paper vaporizing.Got gold? Good luck to you and yours.It's going to get worse.Personally,I'm glad my family is grown and out fending for themselves.

Dandy Don · Sep 15, 2008

Well Mr. dermesc ..............Ha,ha,ha, man you're so funny.

Don

dhermesc · Sep 15, 2008

I've always been a believer in a lot of small entities instead of one big one. It allows you to be diversified and even if one goes down you have several that won't.

We have several medium sized contractor jobs, if one goes bad the other 8-9 will cover it. If we only had one huge job and it went South it would take the company with it.

My dad used to be in custom cutting, hogs, cattle, grain, and hay on the assumption that they couldn't all go bad at once (though every once in the while they did) but it also kept him from getting to big in any one area.

Kansas used to have over a 100 school districts each with their own tax base and budget system. The state took it over and now it distributes funds based on an impossible formula per student. In past years a school district or two would screw the pooch and over run their budget but the the rest would be fine. Now if the state runs short on funds every school district in the state feels the pain.

rrlund · Sep 15, 2008

Just think of the squeeling when the biggest single entity of them all goes under. The federal government. Can you say Social Security and Medicare? Nobody can prop them up when the time comes.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 15, 2008

Offer to buy their stuff at your terms. they get 1% commisssion for 1/2 price sale and have to take payments over 5 years. second call from them is they accept - get the name of salesman and supervisor to take to state consumer protection for fraud complaints. get hangups fairly quick- if they keep talking offer 1/4 asking price. If they say sold - that's why you take 5 years to pay and maybe they go under before end of payout- sort of like sub-prime mortgage. Citybank is hanging up on me quick now. RN

RodinNS · Sep 15, 2008

This is the start... Oil is falling now as well. With oil coming down, it will bring ethanol with it at which point this mess is going to cut a very, VERY wide swath.

Rod

OT---Lehman, Merrill Going Down

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