The collapse of major US financial institutions continues unabated.
Here’s what Greenspan thinks about our situation.
Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest broker, agreed to be acquired by Bank of America for $29 a share, or $43.5 billion, after being pressured into a deal by federal regulators.
Merrill agreed to the BofA sale, which represents a huge premium to its closing price on Friday of $17 a share, after talking to several other potential acquirers, including Morgan Stanley.
Morgan turned down a possible acquisition because it couldn’t examine Merrill’s books in 48 hours, a person close to the matter said.
Merrill plans to make an internal announcement to employees sometime between 8 and 9 am Monday morning.
Merrill came under pressure to find a merger partner came after its liquidity began “evaporating” Friday and the firm became worried about a sharp decline in share price on Monday, according to people inside the firm.
Merrill is expecting huge job losses with the merger. The brokerage division will stay intact, but there will be large-scale reductions in workforce. CEO John Thain is also expected to leave.
“It’s over,” said one senior Merrill official.
It’s just too bad that the American people’s political naivete in falling for the BS of Reagan, Bush and Bush/Cheney will drag down much of the civilized world. “Regulation is bad, the ‘Free Market’ is good” has given the foxes free rein in the henhouse. Result — our gooses are cooked.
For almost one thousand years English Common Law has evolved into a system in which business can thrive because it has safeguards against theft. The most potent economic systems in the world seem to be the combination of English Common Law and Chinese energy and entrepreneurism. As examples I cite Hong Kong and Singapore.
Laissez Faire capitalism has always blown up and always will. Regulation of the marketplace is necessary. Countless ‘experiments’ in the matter have proven it beyond all doubt, except to the professional doubters, such as the American Enterprise Institute and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. They all have their heads where the guy in the most recent ‘Caption This Photo’ post does.
Now McCain wants a 9-11 style commission to investigate the “old boy Washington politics” that led to this.
God help us.
WaMu was giving amazing rates on Certificates of Deposit because they had no cash on hand.
Nobody really has any cash sitting in their vaults lately.
So what does the Fed do? Lower interest rates, punishing the people who save their money! The folks who save money are the ones who make cash available to banks!
This president is crazy. Vote McCain and you all will end up with Zimbabewan money in your wallets….lots of zeroes but you can’t buy more than a bowl of soup with them all.
#36 “WaMu was giving amazing rates on Certificates of Deposit because they had no cash on hand.”
If you look at ANY major bank in the US and examine their asset vs. outstanding loan ratio you’d faint. NONE of them are really solvent. It is one big $ shell game…