Wall Street awakes to 2 storied firms falling

[BR_Parkway]

Source: AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown
By JOE BEL BRUNO, CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Business Writers 9 minutes ago

NEW YORK - When Wall Street woke up Monday morning, two more of its storied firms had fallen.
Lehman Brothers, burdened by $60 billion in soured real-estate holdings, said it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after attempts to rescue the 158-year-old firm failed.

Bank of America Corp. said it is snapping up Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in a $50 billion all-stock transaction.The demise of the independent Wall Street institutions came as shock waves from the 14-month-old credit crisis roiled the U.S. financial system six months after the collapse of Bear Stearns. The world's largest insurance company, American International Group Inc., also was forced into a restructuring.

<snip>

Ten banks — Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS — each agreed to provide $7 billion "to help enhance liquidity and mitigate the unprecedented volatility and other challenges affecting global equity and debt markets."

The Federal Reserve also chipped in with more largesse in its emergency lending program for investment banks. The central bank announced late Sunday that it was broadening the types of collateral that financial institutions can use to obtain loans from the Fed.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

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What a helluva week this is going to be - and watching them all spin it to try to prevent a total meltdown should be something we can learn from for politics

[skyounkin]

1. BURN BABY BURN!!!

Jeez, I might have to file for bankruptcy. Can I have 7 billion dollars too??

Maybe if you cut the exorbant CEO pay, that might help......

LOL- but they ain't gonna do that, heavens no!! They earned that money fair and square fucking everybody else over.

[izzie]

2. I am not sure I wish to read more. It was all in the wind.

Any one in their right mind knows that the more rules you get rid of the more some one will be sure to get rich on the no rule game. I guess Bush and all those GOP big wigs have got their way. Anything goes makes every thing work better. Yar, right. You just can not run a society like ours on hoping a few rich men will not be greedy. This style of running a govt. has now made a smelly mess of every thing from our military, every govt. dept, to roads, and the banking system. It has been facing us for years but then what can I say. I did not vote for Bush or RR and they have been pushing this style for years.

[fasttense]

3. The bushes, like John McInsane, have no understanding of the US economy.

All these bailouts to the monolithic firms is like feeding the lions on the plains. The grass feeds the zebras and the zebras feed the lions. But suddenly the grass dies, the zebras die and the lions are starving. Instead of reseeding the grass or even watering it, the bushes are feeding the lions. Instead of making sure there is grass for the zebras and food for the prey, they are feeding the predators. Unless the bushes keep feeding the lions for the rest of their lives, soon even the lions will die.

That's what is happening now, the lions are dying. It all could have been prevented by taking care of the grass. If the bushes had used the billions of dollars on bailouts to help the little guy instead, if they had helped the American middle class, then the mortgage CDs and everything attached to them would still have had some value.

Instead the bushes feed the predators and all the predators become dependent on the free food.

Don't you just love trickle down economics?

[BR_Parkway]

4. "Trickle down" = "piss on you"

And I know it's going to be painful to many, but maybe we're seeing an unraveling that will turn out to be healthy - a return to smaller, locally owned companies that don't have such global power and access to governments.

[Mira]

5. Very palatable analogy - fasttense - I like how you phrased it N/T

[happygoluckytoyou]

6. "We're doing a heck of a job, and the economy is in GOOD SHAPE ! !" Bush/McCain

[Dogtown]

7. Financial K-T Event

Dinosaurs are dying!!!

[Odin2005]

9. Good analogy! n/t.

[BR_Parkway]

12. But Palin can see her checkbook from her desk - that means she is

a bigger economic expert than anyone else running right now...

[xchrom]

8. recommend

[Odin2005]

10. K&R. Off to the Greatest Page with thou! n/t.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Now, how do we make sure that there are no more greedy bastards

sucking us dry?

[bertman]

13. And the big players just get BIGGER. Before you know it all financial institutions will be under

one or two corporate umbrellas. All in the guise of "saving America" from financial ruin.

Please pardon my cynicism on a Monday morning.