"could only be compared to the Great Depression...or the railroad bankruptcies of the 1800's"

[steve2470]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/markets/markets_newyork2/?postversion=2008091509

"The landscape has changed and a lot of the major players who were are no more, so of course people are panicked," said Stephen Leeb, president at Leeb Capital Management.

"But it's not the end of capitalism," he said. "This may usher in something worse than what we've seen in terms of the economy, but the companies left standing at the end of this will be OK."

Art Hogan, chief market strategist for Jefferies & Co., said the magnitude of the financial industry fallout is unprecedented, and could only be compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s or the railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s.

"We've never witnessed this before," said Hogan. "There's no road map for this."

He said that over the course of the week, investors will be closely watching AIG, Washington Mutual and other banks to see who will be the next to get "embraced by a white knight."

more at link above

[pansypoo53219]

1. well,

at least bernake can tell us what to expect. mr. depression scholar.

[Strelnikov_]

2. "companies left standing at the end of this will be OK"

Umm . . OK.

[kurt_cagle]

3. So BofA will be fine?!

BofA picked up Countrywide after it collapsed, bringing all of the bad mortgages onto their books (by accounts several tens of billions worth). BofA picks up Merrill Lynch this weekend, bringing all of ITS bad paper onto the books (at least $30B-$40B, if not more).

My question is where the hell is BofA getting the money to do this? Their own books weren't in that good a shape even going into this storm, now their vaults are pretty much filling up with junk. Makes me wonder what kind of back-room deal Paulson and company made with them, and whether BofA's days are numbered too.