The Realist

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.

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?