unmanaged wrote:

In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer, people briefed on the deals said.

The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of tens of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.

They culminated a weekend of frantic around-the-clock negotiations, as Wall Street bankers huddled in meetings at the behest of Bush administration officials to try to avoid a downward spiral in the markets stemming from a crisis of confidence.

“My goodness. I’ve been in the business 35 years, and these are the most extraordinary events I‘ve ever seen,” said Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of the private equity firm the Blackstone Group, who was head of Lehman in the 1970s and a secretary of commerce in the Nixon administration.

Govt says everything is ok, but who do we really believe anymore... bad days are on the way.

The name Bush is about to go down in history the same way the name Hoover did. If you said Hoover in my grandmother's house, it didn't matter if you were talking about vacuum cleaners, you could expect at the very least to be wondering if you'd still be able to walk after she got done chewing your ass off, and that's assuming she didn't just throw you out of the house. It didn't matter if you were one of her 10 year old grandchildren or not.

When Greenspan says once in a half century, more likely once in a century, we're talking about 1929. Batten down the hatches, this is going to get incredibly rocky.

Mike the Usurper wrote:

unmanaged wrote:

In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer, people briefed on the deals said.

The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of tens of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.

They culminated a weekend of frantic around-the-clock negotiations, as Wall Street bankers huddled in meetings at the behest of Bush administration officials to try to avoid a downward spiral in the markets stemming from a crisis of confidence.

“My goodness. I’ve been in the business 35 years, and these are the most extraordinary events I‘ve ever seen,” said Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of the private equity firm the Blackstone Group, who was head of Lehman in the 1970s and a secretary of commerce in the Nixon administration.

Govt says everything is ok, but who do we really believe anymore... bad days are on the way.

The name Bush is about to go down in history the same way the name Hoover did. If you said Hoover in my grandmother's house, it didn't matter if you were talking about vacuum cleaners, you could expect at the very least to be wondering if you'd still be able to walk after she got done chewing your ass off, and that's assuming she didn't just throw you out of the house. It didn't matter if you were one of her 10 year old grandchildren or not.

When Greenspan says once in a half century, more likely once in a century, we're talking about 1929. Batten down the hatches, this is going to get incredibly rocky.

Again bush is partly to blame as all this was a setup for failure that started 20+ years ago...

The rich, without regulation, has now proven themselves that they will take advantage of everyone to just get richer, no matter what, even if it means suicide, small towns, people, and even the very same big businesses go in the crapper...

unmanaged wrote:
The rich, without regulation, has now proven themselves that they will take advantage of everyone to just get richer, no matter what, even if it means suicide, small towns, people, and even the very same big businesses go in the crapper...

It's a perspective problem, not a regulation problem. When you're doing well, you tend to get isolated into pockets of others that do well (and vice versa). You fail to see the perspectives of other people. Or worse, you actively build walls and filters to keep them out (literally or figuratively). That creates a sense that everyone is just like you and you miss the fact that you are undermining your own security.

What's interesting about this phenomenon, to me anyways, is that it echoes the Soviet Union and the Eastern European experience post 1989 (or Detroit, now). That was that everyone just stole everything, no matter the consequence. We're in the same situation. We all know that shared resources and collective institutions are important for our society to function, but I'll be damned if I'm giving up my shit! Obviously, that's unsustainable.

unmanaged wrote:

In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer, people briefed on the deals said.

The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of tens of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.

They culminated a weekend of frantic around-the-clock negotiations, as Wall Street bankers huddled in meetings at the behest of Bush administration officials to try to avoid a downward spiral in the markets stemming from a crisis of confidence.

“My goodness. I’ve been in the business 35 years, and these are the most extraordinary events I‘ve ever seen,” said Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of the private equity firm the Blackstone Group, who was head of Lehman in the 1970s and a secretary of commerce in the Nixon administration.

Govt says everything is ok, but who do we really believe anymore... bad days are on the way.

Hmm... I think I confused this with this. You're absolutely right. You can't believe anything anymore, so you are unable to make choices. The answer? More data.

flynn23 wrote:

unmanaged wrote:

In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer, people briefed on the deals said.

The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of tens of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.

They culminated a weekend of frantic around-the-clock negotiations, as Wall Street bankers huddled in meetings at the behest of Bush administration officials to try to avoid a downward spiral in the markets stemming from a crisis of confidence.

“My goodness. I’ve been in the business 35 years, and these are the most extraordinary events I‘ve ever seen,” said Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of the private equity firm the Blackstone Group, who was head of Lehman in the 1970s and a secretary of commerce in the Nixon administration.

Govt says everything is ok, but who do we really believe anymore... bad days are on the way.

Hmm... I think I confused this with this. Your absolutely right. You can't believe anything anymore, so you are unable to make choices. The answer? More data.

Touche flynn23! You said it way better, I guess I just like to simplify...

DATA DATA .... 111000111110001010101...