The Realist

JPMorgan and the Concentration of Risk

HE Loans & Lines are barely 20% writedown. This is insane.

For example, if you purchased a house in 2003 at $300k and its value went up to $400k and you took out a $50k line of credit life was good. But when that home dropped back down to $300k you now have a HELOC that has no equity behind it.

These HELOCs are not percentage writedowns, they are 100% writedowns on many of them. To assume only 20% will be written down is nuts.

What's the BofA / Merrill Synergy?

You forgot the third and fourth potential reasons for this.

3. Ken Lewis spent the entire weekend smoking crack and by Sunday night he thought a 60% premium meant only 60% of the then current price.

4. Thain has some very sordid pictures of Ken Lewis.

Could Lehman's Failure Cause a Systemic Meltdown?

LDT, put down your crack pipe man. LEH has liabilities well in excess of its assets. They can not pay their debts in full, what makes you think someone is willing to buy them for $35 billion? To me that seems like $34.9 billion too much.

I would like this to just end the way it should, let the bank wind down and the chips fall where they must. I could not disagree with Felix more that the Fed should take any actions. How much more of my money does the government have to steal? I am already in the mortgage business thanks to these clowns, I don't want to be in the Investment Banking one right now.

These criminals create a bubble for five years, steal our money and then expect us to "backstop/cover up" their theft. I have no problem working out the counterparty issues but debt should get exactly what is left over after asset sales, not a penny more.

Bank of America: Credit Weakness Spreading to Commercial Loans

Is this clown Moynihan serious? Does he not understand that writeoffs should not be compared to a total book of loans when that book is highly levered or is he treating us like we are retarded?

The question is whether the effect of a $5 - $7 billion writeoff against total capital is significant.

I just can't believe the stuff that comes out of these people's mouths.

Financials To Resume Meltdown Momentarily

Are you saying in point 1 that the banks are going down now only because of the short selling rule? It has nothing to do with the fact that these companies are in serious trouble and any one way collapse at any moment? It has nothing to do with billions of loans outstanding that might not be paid back in full? It has nothing to do with having to use what precious little money they have to buy back auction rate securities that they sold by deception?

With at least another year of write offs and to the real estate bottom, a contention that I believe is off by one to two years, why would the market rally in two months? Because it is forward looking and effecient? Just like it was forward looking in Aug-Oct of 2007 when it ran to a new high in the face of the sub prime meltdown?