Our financial system is crumbling this week.

[TabascoElvis]

This will leave Goldman-Sachs as the one survivor among Wall street's big 5.
I'm down 21% on the retirement account.

Morgan-Stanley is still there, at least last I checked.

Although

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest independent U.S. securities firm, may sell a larger stake to China Investment Corp. and is in talks about a possible merger with Wachovia Corp., a person familiar with the matter said.

China's state-controlled fund may buy as much as 49 percent of the New York-based investment bank, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks aren't public and may end in no agreement. Morgan Stanley resumed its decline on the New York Stock Exchange, falling as much as 22 percent.

[G. Keenan]

This will leave Goldman-Sachs as the one survivor among Wall street's big 5.
I'm down 21% on the retirement account.

Morgan-Stanley is still there, at least last I checked.

Although

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest independent U.S. securities firm, may sell a larger stake to China Investment Corp. and is in talks about a possible merger with Wachovia Corp., a person familiar with the matter said.

China's state-controlled fund may buy as much as 49 percent of the New York-based investment bank, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks aren't public and may end in no agreement. Morgan Stanley resumed its decline on the New York Stock Exchange, falling as much as 22 percent.

I'd heard about the merger/buyout talks. I thought Swatcat was talking about declaring bankruptcy. I think Morgan Stanley will find a buyer and not collapse like Lehman Brothers.

[TabascoElvis]

This will leave Goldman-Sachs as the one survivor among Wall street's big 5.
I'm down 21% on the retirement account.

Morgan-Stanley is still there, at least last I checked.

Although

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest independent U.S. securities firm, may sell a larger stake to China Investment Corp. and is in talks about a possible merger with Wachovia Corp., a person familiar with the matter said.

China's state-controlled fund may buy as much as 49 percent of the New York-based investment bank, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks aren't public and may end in no agreement. Morgan Stanley resumed its decline on the New York Stock Exchange, falling as much as 22 percent.

I'd heard about the merger/buyout talks. I thought Swatcat was talking about declaring bankruptcy. I think Morgan Stanley will find a buyer and not collapse like Lehman Brothers.

Ah, gotcha.

[Radbird]

Dow is up 410 today.

[Freed Roger]

Dow is up 410 today.

everybody - get nekked and roll around in all your $$$$ !

[sighyoung]

Here's an interesting blog entry that discusses what has just transpired in the past couple of weeks:

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... upheavals/

[UK]

Not to beat a dead horse as far as Thomas Friedman articles but...

This one deals with the economic crisis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/opini ... edman.html

Let’s understand what happened here. Wall Street — the financial industry — became a bubble in recent years thanks to an excess of liquidity and the oldest bubble maker in history: greed. Some of the smartest people forgot one of the oldest rules of investing: There is no such thing as a risk-free return. When you reach too far for yield, sooner or later you get burned.

The market is now consolidating this industry, with the strong eating the weak, which will impose its own fiscal discipline. Good. Maybe then more of our next generation of math geniuses will think about going into engineering the next great global industry — energy technology — rather than engineering derivatives.

In sum, government’s job is to police that fine line between the necessary risk-taking that drives an innovation economy and crazy gambling with other people’s savings in ways that threaten us all. We need to make sure that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas — and doesn’t come to Main Street. We need to get back to investing in our future and not just betting on it.

[Freed Roger]

Govt found some blank checks that came with their recent credit card statement

whew - the whole US is too big to fail. problems solved on Wall St. Money still can grow on trees. carry on.

[Hungary Jack]

Here's an interesting blog entry that discusses what has just transpired in the past couple of weeks:

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... upheavals/

Anil lives down the street. Nice to see him getting some pub here.

How Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were permitted to buy mortgage-backed securities using taxpayer money is criminal. This is a failure of regulatory oversight.

Too bad for Lehman shareholders. But I am glad the feds didn't cave on this one.

Re AIG, the shareholders really got screwed by the executive leadership for writing those contracts. Now it looks like Mr. and Mrs. U.S. Taxpayer will end up owning 80% of a company that appears to have at least some profitable businesses. But the huge amount ($57B) of insurance contracts written for the mortgage-backed securities suggests that there will need to be another mechanism to support the market for these securities which, right now, does not exist (no one wants to buy these securities, and thus the financial firms that own them cannot sell them, which means they cannot value them, which means they cannot accurately portray the value of the assets on their balance sheet, which means they cannot raise additional capital, which means they cannot make loans and other investments).

Alan Greenspan, the man who presided over the buildup of two huge asset price bubbles over a decade, is strangely quiet nowadays.

[TimeForGuinness]

Alan Greenspan, the man who presided over the buildup of two huge asset price bubbles over a decade, is strangely quiet nowadays.

Bernanke is doing a heck of a job trying to clean up the mess that Greenspan left.

I like Big Ben.