NY Times: A Frantic Weekend That Wall Street Won’t Forget

[marmar]

A Frantic Weekend That Wall Street Won’t Forget

By BEN WHITE and JENNY ANDERSON
Published: September 14, 2008


Fear and greed are the stuff that Wall Street is made of. But inside the great banking houses, those high temples of capitalism, fear came to the fore this weekend.

As Lehman Brothers, one of oldest names on Wall Street, appeared to unravel on Sunday, anxiety over the bank’s fate — and over what might happen next — gripped the nation’s financial industry. By late afternoon, Merrill Lynch, under mounting pressure, entered into talks to sell itself to Bank of America.

Dinner parties were canceled. Weekend getaways were postponed. All of Wall Street, it seemed, was on high alert.

In skyscrapers across Manhattan, banking executives were holed up inside their headquarters, within cocoons of soft rugs and wood-paneled walls, desperately trying to assess their company’s exposure to the stricken Lehman. It was, by all accounts, a day unlike anything Wall Street had ever seen.

In the financial district, bond traders, anxious about how the markets would react on Monday, sought refuge in ultrasafe Treasury bills. Greenwich, Conn., that leafy realm of hedge fund millionaires and corporate chieftains, felt like a ghost town. Greenwich Avenue, which usually bustles on Sundays, was eerily quiet.

A year into the financial crisis, few dreamed that the situation would spiral down so far, so fast. Only a week ago, the Bush administration took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies. Then, before anyone could sigh a breath of relief after that crisis, Lehman was on the brink. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/business/15street.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[sudopod]

1. qicq nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. why, am I having hard time feeling any pity --

Cancelled dinner parties and postponed week-end get aways, my sweet ass :eyes:

[AwakeAtLast]

11. Exactly what I thought

Boo fucking hoo.

Is this the time to tell them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps? :shrug:

;)

[dogindia]

3. what does qicq mean?

[LiberalHeart]

4. Someone in Breaking News posted CNBC will do a show on this at 8pm

The post got locked because it didn't fit the rules there.

[dgibby]

15. I posted that.

What did I do wrong? I cited NBC as the source. I'm confused.:shrug:

[LiberalHeart]

16. I don't know. It surprised me. Maybe because it was programming and not a headline? n/t

[dogindia]

5. all the financials are connect in complex ways. this will effect everyone

Why is it not being discussed here? The candidates should be on camera as we speak talking about how to manage the crisis instead of talking about goofy stuff. And lying. And putting forth idiot unprepared folks to run anything.

[annabanana]

6. We are a country of economic illiterates

(I include myself in that demographic)

I will be looking for some clarity and some succinctness over the next few days...

[MsLeopard]

9. It's being discussed here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3489040

And tomorrow in the Stock Market Watch thread in LBN here at DU should be rocking! :hi:

[SoCalDem]

7. Wall Street" /"The Market" is nothing more than a CASINO

where rich folks gamble with OUR money, and then charge US commissions to do it.. When they WIN with "our money", THEY keep a BIG ole bundle of it, and we get "some"of it..on paper..

there was a time when there were no 24-7 "networks" no "money-honey gals".....There was a tiny seconds-long blurb at the end of the nightly news.."the dow was up/down"..and then the sign off..

people did not have a "ticker" scrolling along the side/bottom/top of their computer screens so they could "watch" their money..

Know why?

Ordinary people used to have guaranteed pensions, and real savings accounts in real banks.. they had mortgages they could afford, car payments they could afford, college for their kids that they could afford...They made enough to live on and they knew that "someday" their pension would kick in, and with SS and the medical coverage between medicare and their pension plan coverage, they would be just fine.. not rich..but comfortable..

When companies yanked the pensions away and gave a "pay-out" to a 40-something yr old guy who all of a sudden had to figure this out all on his own, welll.. there was wall street just salivating at the idea of all these bumpkins out there, just ripe for the picking...

people were acutely aware of their "status", ordinary people did not aspire to be "market millionaires"..

[girl gone mad]

8. I love that "few dreamed" bullshit.

:eyes:

I could find at least 100 financial blogs that had been predicting this for years before it happened. And not those tinfoil goldbug types, either. Just normal people with enough experience and common sense to know a Ponzi Scheme when they see one.

[indepat]

10. Ah, the joys of 'puke governance: good old-fashioned greed topped by mountains of fraud

in a lazy-fair world where the good ole boys have at it without any governmental interference, profits are privatized, and losses socialized. :P

[mzmolly]

12. Where is that gosh darned free market rescue plan?!

;)

[Hubert Flottz]

13. And McCain still wants to put your Social Security money up for

grabs on Wall Street...

[MsLeopard]

14. Wall Street

has been proving lately that they don't what the sh*t they're doing.... More and more I'm thinking that a complete global meltdown, albeit created pretty much by the once-economic-giant-USA, might be the catalyst society needs to start over on a drastically more level playing field. Super wealthy like the Bushes, and other old money families will not be touched, but everyone else - 99.9% of everyone - will feel the coming collapse to their bones. IMO.