User 176952

Merrill CDO Deal: How Can It Book a 'Sale'?

I am NOT an Accoutant, and neither rooting for MER but:
When I buy a car from GM for $20,000
I pay $2000 down and they finance the $18,000
I have full control on the Car, but if I don't pay back the loan they can take away my car (which will be worth a lot less than $18,000 then)
For now, they have taken a loss and removed the stuff from their books. I guess they are estimating that the CDO's won't go down to zero.