Beagle called it!

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I do believe that Beagle was the one to mention this in the Last Post thread, but here's the news.

From Boing Boing:

Not the first line you want to read in the top story in every major newspaper on the first day of the week. There it is, though. Today was one of the most bleak days ever in Wall Street's history, and Monday looks like it's gonna suck. The headlines will surely be easy to find; I'm publishing this post mostly just to create an open thread for the BB community to discuss whatever unfolds. Snip:

    The American financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. faced the prospect of liquidation, and Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be sold to Bank of America Corp. The U.S. government, which bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a week ago and orchestrated the sale of Bear Stearns Cos. to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in March, played much tougher with Lehman. It refused to provide a financial backstop to potential buyers. Without such support, Barclays PLC and Bank of America, the two most interested buyers, walked away. Late Sunday night, Lehman said it intends to file for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Hang on to your wigs, friends.

Here's more on insurer AIG's related meltdown, and here's the article from which the preceding graf was snipped: Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill Is Sold, AIG Seeks to Raise Cash (Wall Street Journal)

Delicious. I wonder what else is going to join the basket on the road to business hell?

[beagle]

There was a lot about it in our Sunday papers, partly because of the Barclays link. Apparently Henry Paulson asked Barclays and Bank of America to do a rescue of the "rescuable" part.  The version here is that Barclays had to consider it because of who asked, but that it was never really a runner because taking on so much debt/risk would have required going back to the shareholders for a vote (which would take weeks/months), and the U.S. government wasn't going to put much/any money in.

With Lehmans gone Merril-Lynch was next on the shorting list, and with others backing off from trading with it that would (the experts tell us) turned into a self-fulfilling doom prophecy.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Merril-Lynch has been bought by Bank of America.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

The bets are off with AIG now.

[Griffin NoName]

Merril-Lynch has been bought by Bank of America.

Am I the only one wondering what happens when Bank of America fails, The Bank of England fails, the Governement fails? Does anyone know which companies/organisations the Creationists actually control? What part does the LHC play in these events? And will 2012 arrive in time?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

We are seeing the fruits of too-large companies with too-small a view to their futures.

That is, these overly-large corporations cannot see past Next Tuesday, and are only interested in Profit for that period...and nothing beyond that.

We've lost our vision of the future, with 5, 10, 20 and 50 year plans that old successful corporations USED to maintain.

I say a pox on'em all-- they ought to all be allowed to go to History's scrap heap....


...but alas, that would pull down too many hard-working people in the process, and that would be Bad.

Oughta dump the CEO's out on their collective behinds WITHOUT ANY $$ COMPENSATION.   Their lucrative bennies packages ought to be forfeit, back to the company...JUST LIKE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO JOE-SIXPACK IF HE'D SCREWED UP THIS BADLY.

Bleah.   I'm having serious un-Taddy feelings towards these CEO's right about now..... sorry about that!

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Make sure the Golden Parachutes go to severance packages for the lower rungs of the ladder--the cubicle inmates and low ranking managers, for example.