September 2008

Update: 800PM EDT: DealBook is now reporting that Lehman is expected to file bankruptcy as soon as tonight. (See post). Merrill, fearing for its continued existence, is now in takeover talks with BofA (see…

I have been so busy following the ongoing saga in financial services that I forgot to tell you about two Washington DC-area home builders in the news. Comstock, a privately-held developer, just defaulted on almost $100 million in debt. In…

The world of financial services in not looking terribly stable in the wake of the Frannie nationalization. In fact, things are as jumbled as they have ever been. The latest news has AIG down 30% and both WaMu and Lehman brothers on the…

Is the U.S. in recession or not? Well, the U.S. printed a 3.3% number for growth in the second quarter according to the data released last week. Since then, I have been asking myself why we shouldn't believe the U.S. is in an expansion…

Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin spoke with Charles Gibson of ABC News last night about national security. This is her first major media interview since being picked as John McCain's running mate. The video is in two parts…

The news round for today includes only links from some of my favorite blogs. There is news on Lehman, Fannie and from around the shop. All the stories are interesting and show top-notch analysis.Enjoy!WaMu: $4.5 Billion in Loan Loss…

Hurricane Ike is going to be a difficult storm. It is a massive storm with tropical storm force winds covering the entire Gulf of Mexico. Disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico, in refining capacity and in gasoline distribution, as well as…

The word on the street is that Lehman will be bought by September 13th. The rumor mill swirls when a stock crashes like Lehman has. Rumors fill the vacuum left by a lack of certainty about a company's prospects. And right now people are…

I just spotted an interview in L'Express with George Soros while he is in France plugging his book on the credit crisis. His overall point is that markets are not efficient. They tend to excess. Present regulatory controls and banking…

I have only seen this story in Germany so far. The long and short is that this is a done deal. Deutsche Bank is expected to close the deal tomorrow. Helping to seal the deal is the fact that no layoffs are anticipated initially. This will…