It’s ironic that real estate got banks into trouble, but the only thing that others really want from the f*cked financial companies is their real estate.
Tech Crunch points to a piece in the NYT on the loss of value of financial companies between October 9, 2007 and September 12, 2008, or roughly 11 months. Reading it, you can’t help but shake your head:
Citigroup: $236.7 billion to $97.8 billion.
Bank of America: $236.5 billion to $150.2 billion.
AIG: $179.8 billion to $32.3 billion
Goldman Sachs: $97.7 billion to $61.3 billion
American Express: $74.8 billion to $45 billion.
Morgan Stanley: $73.1 billion to $41.1 billion.
Fannie Mae: $64.8 billion to $700 million.
Merrill Lynch: $63.9 billion to $24.2 billion
Freddie Mac: $41.5 billion to $300 million.
Lehman Brothers: $34.4 billion to $2.5 billion.
Washington Mutual: $31.1 billion to $2.9 billion continue reading...
I was scrolling through some old articles and came across some of the accompanying images you see alongside the articles. This article - dated September 5th 2008 - has a picture, with the following text and image caption:
Elizabeth Rose, top, and Michael McDonnell, both of Lehman Brothers MarketMakers, watch early trading from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, in New York. Selling swept across Wall Street for a second straight session on news that the economy shed jobs for the eighth straight month in August and at a faster-than-expected pace. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams) continue reading...
Not sure yet… but today might be bleak:
- Alan Greenspan: Economy in ‘once-in-a-century’ crisis continue reading...
SAI has a great rundown of Lehman… who allegedly had zero risk of going down a few months ago:
* This time, even debtholders could be hosed
* Paulson to Lehman: I’m not saving your sorry ass
* 99% of Lehman employees about to get royally screwed
* Fuld: I can’t understand why no one believes me
* Potential Lehman Buyers Hanging Fed On Own Petard
* “If We Don’t Get Bought In The Next 24 Hours, It’s Over”
* Bank of America Now Lehman’s Best Hope
* LEH Traders: “The Entire F*ing Street Wants Us To Fail”
* Lehman Now Desperately Trying To Sell Itself
* Is This the Day The Financial System Collapses?
* HSBC not buying Lehman, either continue reading...
I’ve been keeping track of - and tabs on - the alleged growth in online video advertising forecasts.
Here are some of the previous forecasts: continue reading...
YHOO blew the deal, sure, and you have to wonder what that says for its bankers?
Allen & Co. is trying to raise money for Linkedin at a whopping $1B valuation. It’s worth noting that Allen & Co. is encroaching more and more on West Coast startups, it raised $50M for Ning and Slide at monster $500M valuations. continue reading...
In 2006, I sat my wife down and told her: I was going to start a company, I would finance it myself until it made sense to raise outside funding or someone showed interest. She asked me a few questions, then I basically characterized the move as saying “instead of trusting CEOs and employees of companies I had nothing to do with and no impact on” I would be betting on myself, my ability to identify an opportunity, recruit a team, determine a business plan and build a company.
It was risky, but pointing to criminal cases like Worldcom, Enron, Arthur Andersen and not-criminal meltdowns like Yahoo! or flat stock prices like Microsoft, I thought it was a no-brainer. continue reading...
After a few - well, shall we say it - boring years, Yahoo! is turning into a soap opera. The lawsuits have started:
The Wayne County Employees’ Retirement System of Michigan, owner of about 13,600 Yahoo shares, sued Yahoo in Delaware’s Court of Chancery continue reading...
