ACapitalist

E*Trade Financial: Laying the Foundation for Success

Good debate going on here. One point about book value is that .6x figure being tossed around here is book including goodwill. Market cap to tanigle book is well over 1X. Take out other all intangibles and it looks like 3.6x! Not very cheap. However, Etrades broker biz has a great deal of value so this still may be a good buy at $3.69.

Interesting Response to the Government's Homebuilder Bailout

Generaly, write downs in value are not tax deductable so only the losses that arise from actual sales losses are will result in tax refunds. There are builders, as well as financial companies, that are selling assets at losses to get those tax refunds. However the vast majority of the losses being reported are just mark to market adjustments.