Tax Reform in This Election Year: It's Not Likely
Walmart's New Health Food Push: Is It Too Hard to Swallow?Shares in Lehman (NYSE: LEH) opened down 84% in Europe. Shares in some banks there were off 10%. The Dow futures were down over 300 points.
The announcement of a planned Chapter 11 filing by Lehman and the word that AIG (NYSE: AIG) would ask the Fed for a $40 billion loan touched off panic in the markets. This was not buffered by news that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) would pay over $50 billion for Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) or that the Fed would make emergency funds available to banks and brokerages.
While ten large banks set up a $70 billion borrowing facility which any of them could use in a crisis, it was not clear whether that sum would be nearly enough.
It's odd that almost all of these losses can be traced to the the American consumer who has watched the value of his home fall by 20% and may see it fall much further.
Most of the pain on Wall Street comes from bets which firms made that US real estate would trend higher and that mortgage default rates would stay relatively low.
It may be the worst bet Wall Street ever made.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-15-2008 @ 8:01AM
jstevens said...
The American consumer, indeed, as the villain! B S ! The greed and promotions of bankers and lenders offering "the american dream to pathetic underachievers of every type at the expense of investors all over the world, as well as in the U S is the cause and they should be prosecuted!
9-15-2008 @ 8:30AM
sgentilejr said...
The financial crisis and bank/mortgage mess has very little to do with sub-prime loans. 70% of all foreclosurers are not in the sub-prime group and are instead in the regular and older mortgage loans.
Bankrupties by senior citizens are up over 400%. It is all about people not having the money they need to meet today's costs of living. Costs have increased far faster than wages...result=....people cannot repay what they borrowed in the past.
9-15-2008 @ 9:29AM
Sam Warr said...
I used to deal through M-L, but found them to be extremely unethical, so I moved by money to Schwab. Now that they are being bought out by Bank of America, it won't be long before they are in the same category as Lehman Brothers. I pay my bills on time, took a standard mortgage on my home, and now the house is devalued by 20%. Keep it up and the house will be fall below the price I paid for it in 2001. At that point the mortgage will be worthless, having lost a large portion of my retirement nest egg. There will not be any reason to continue to pay my mortgage off, so let it go into foreclosure. The banks are tampering with a time bomb, and the average guy who has been financially conservative and responsible for his debt continues to be screwed. We will have the last word on the banking industries unethical conduct.
9-15-2008 @ 10:43AM
Vigilante said...
Barack Obama today:
The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren't minding the store. Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.
I certainly don't fault Sen. McCain for these problems. but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to.
It's under-regulated capitalism, Baby!