Dear John Thain

Disclosure from Financials? I Call B.S.

JasonC:

Actually, Merrill wasn't a big S.I.V. player--their writedowns were all from inventory they were unable to securitize when the market turned. As for Citi, the majority of their writedowns have come form inventory in their C.D.O. business, a vast minority of the writedowns were from S.I.V.'s. The issue with S.I.V.'s was, first and foremost, one of capital and consolidation.

-DJT