Charlie Stromeyer Jr

Has Merrill Survived the Current Crisis? Analysts Weigh In

Both U.S. stock market history and a study have already demonstrated multiple times that forward looking P/E ratios are not useful (which is why I prefer to look at trailing 12 month P/E ratios), and thus MER trading around 10X FY09 estimates does not tell us much.

Disclosure: no position of any kind in MER.

Merrill Cleanses Itself... We Think

I agree with the previous two comments. Based upon their track record, MER doesn't know anything about CDOs.

Disclosure: no current positions of any kind in either MER nor CDOs.

How High Leverage Has Brought Down the Whole Banking Industry

Hi Thomas, here is the Bloomberg article about CDS exposure:

www.bloomberg.com/apps...

The article gets some of its info from the OCC report that pescayolas linked to.

How High Leverage Has Brought Down the Whole Banking Industry

Kinabalu, I also find it hard to believe that the recovery rate is about 50% at Lehman (LEH). For example, almost all of the $48 billion of CDOs underwritten by Merrill Lynch (MER) in 2007 are now in default or on the verge (according to BusinessWeek and other sources).

How High Leverage Has Brought Down the Whole Banking Industry

Good piece, Thomas. Do you agree with an earlier Bloomberg article which implied that JP Morgan (JPM) has the greatest risk exposure ever to credit default swaps (CDS)?