Merrill Lynch for sale on eBay for $4.99

[FRED]

Want to buy one of the world's leading financial management and advisory companies, providing financial advice and investment banking services? Yours for only five bucks. Better hurry. Auction ends day after tomorrow.

AntiSpin: Of course, Merrill is not really for sale on eBay. The image is the handiwork of Kate, our intrepid manipulator of graphic bits. But Merrill is certainly for sale in the business press. You'd think from all the dire prognostications that Merrill was the worst off of all the investment banks caught holding the live structured credit hand grenades when they went off. But you'd be wrong.

iTuliper gone indy Aaron Krowne of Mortgage Lender Implode fame weighs in with the this nugget:

"Wall Street banks, looking at how much each has in the way of level 3 (i.e., mark to model) assets, compared to total equity."

"If Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are in the 1st and 2nd place level 3 grenade-wise among the investment banks, why is the business media focusing all of their attention on Merrill Lynch, which appears to have by far the least exposure?"

Good question, Aaron.

Maybe one of our members has an answer.

[Spartacus]

Re: Merrill Lynch for sale on eBay for $4.99

One of the Canadian commentators noticed the capitalization of Royal Bank of Canada (just a name, it's not in any sense any 'official government bank' or anything) is now higher than Merrill Lynch - he also noted couple of other things

Some of the Canadian banks have made forays into US retail banking in the past without much success.

Some are looking to try in the US again - Toronto Dominion bank just bought a New Jersey bank.

This commentator suggested Merrill Lynch might be a good target for Royal Bank.

[jk]

Re: Merrill Lynch for sale on eBay for $4.99

"If Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are in the 1st and 2nd place level 3 grenade-wise among the investment banks, why is the business media focusing all of their attention on Merrill Lynch, which appears to have by far the least exposure?"

iirc there's a new accounting rule coming into effect '08 q1 which will require market valuation of the level 3 assets [though god knows how]. that's when it'll be time to 'fess up. in the meantime, the focus is on write-downs made [merrill] and write-downs predicted by official wall street analysts [citi- although citi will soon move into the former category].

[*T*]

Re: Merrill Lynch for sale on eBay for $4.99

"Wall Street banks, looking at how much each has in the way of level 3 (i.e., mark to model) assets, compared to total equity." [/INDENT]

Roubini addressing this exact question:
http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/224871

[baw]

Re: Merrill Lynch for sale on eBay for $4.99

The Business media fell for a the redherring. The more interesting question is "why did Merrill make an attempt at coming clean". My top three reasons are.
1. Nice guys finish last.
2. Bonuses weren't going to be that big anyway.
3. Couldn't figure out an honest way to take the otherside of the trade.

[gmoney]

Re: Merrill Lynch for sale on eBay for $4.99

why is the business media focusing all of their attention on Merrill Lynch, which appears to have by far the least exposure?"Good question, Aaron.

Maybe one of our members has an answer.

In this post I found an answer to a question that has been nagging me.

Keep your eyes on Goldman Sachs (GS). Traditionally, they are supposed to be the 'gold standard' on wall st. and so far this year, it seems they've managed to avoid trouble. In fact, GS is often touted on CNBC by Cramer, Krudlow, etc, as something you'd actually want to buy.

I say: not now. If these numbers are correct, GS is almost 2to1 leveraged in the subprime market. I remember reading somewhere else in this forum that GS had a 'special reserve fund' that it could tap into, in case of trouble. It was big. I asked myself at the time, 'why'? Why does it need such an 'emergency credit card'? Now I know why.

Thank you for answering that question. Now, I pose a couple new ones:

1. When is GS's day of reckoning? I just want to know when to tune in to CNBC and watch the 'experts' eat crow.

2. Does anybody have the link to the original article that mentions GS's 'secret fort knox'?

Finally, to attempt to answer the original question (quoted above): I guess that it's easy for the press to 'pile on' an easy story. Perhaps that, in an attempt to do the right thing, and publicly admit problems, Merril became an easy target for 'hard hitting' investigative reporting.

[metalman]

Re: Merrill Lynch for sale on eBay for $4.99

In this post I found an answer to a question that has been nagging me.

Keep your eyes on Goldman Sachs (GS). Traditionally, they are supposed to be the 'gold standard' on wall st. and so far this year, it seems they've managed to avoid trouble. In fact, GS is often touted on CNBC by Cramer, Krudlow, etc, as something you'd actually want to buy.

I say: not now. If these numbers are correct, GS is almost 2to1 leveraged in the subprime market. I remember reading somewhere else in this forum that GS had a 'special reserve fund' that it could tap into, in case of trouble. It was big. I asked myself at the time, 'why'? Why does it need such an 'emergency credit card'? Now I know why.

Thank you for answering that question. Now, I pose a couple new ones:

1. When is GS's day of reckoning? I just want to know when to tune in to CNBC and watch the 'experts' eat crow.

2. Does anybody have the link to the original article that mentions GS's 'secret fort knox'?

Finally, to attempt to answer the original question (quoted above): I guess that it's easy for the press to 'pile on' an easy story. Perhaps that, in an attempt to do the right thing, and publicly admit problems, Merril became an easy target for 'hard hitting' investigative reporting.

gs is a hedge fund swinging in the wind with the others like investment trusts of the 1920s after the shit hit the fan in 29. no reason to think it'll fail with paulson running the treasury dept. we'll go to war with russia before that happens.