I go to Canada for a couple of days and what happens?

[solarbird]

Lehman Brothers is bankrupt. Dollar down sharply, overnight Dow Jones futures down 300, S&P and Nasdaq futures down 42-44 each. Tomorrow's going to be exciting. Oh, and Bank of America is buying Merrill Lynch. Busy weekend!

But somehow, Washington Mutual is apparently still alive. Freaks.

Vancouver, btw, was, as always, awesome, and in a weird turn of events I ended up giving a little impromptu concert in a coffee shop on Caprica. It seemed to be pretty well-received.

More when I am more alive. G'night!

Comments

[silussa.livejournal.com]

I think WaMu is still alive mainly because everyone is distracted. Certainly that is the one everyone will notice if they go down; there's a LOT of WaMu debit cards in the marketplace.

AIG is scrambling to secure more funds in the wake of a threatened credit downgrade, including borrowing $40 billion from the FED (http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/aig-seeks-40-billion-loan/story.aspx?guid={F588B80C-2D77-43A2-A2B8-85BE4CC2C85B}). While we've been looking elsewhere, this may turn out to be the next rock to drop on Wall Street, based on the WSJ article.

Personal note....is it just me, or is this rather like watching a slow-motion multiple car accident?

[cow.livejournal.com]

Fun fact about that $40b loan request: AIG's market cap is $32b right now, and likely to be significantly less about twenty seconds after the opening bell tomorrow.

This should be, uh, fun(?).

[solarbird]

6.87 -5.27 -43.39%

So yeah. $18B now!

[solarbird]

AIG stock is reportedly now collapsing in realtime. People with no-delay tickers are telling me it's under $4/share. (My lame 20-minute delay is still showing $5.49.)

[solarbird]

...but now bouncing hard on US$20B in infusion from subsidiaries, and they're still going asking for that US$40B.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

"Shares of AIG slumped 61% to close at $4.76." - closing report

That leaves it around $12b market value?

[hubbit.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those WaMu debit card holders, along with a checking account with linked savings. I feel very optimistic and confident at the moment. (Yeah. Right.)

Personal note....is it just me, or is this rather like watching a slow-motion multiple car accident?

Pretty apt imagery, that. Toss in a good train wreck and maybe a boat pileup for good measure. And yet, I go for popcorn because I've been saying for years that the predatory practices of the credit industry would one day do them in.

Edit: I deleted this thinking that I inadvertantly responded to Dara. It appears that all the comments in the thread are to this post, I just misread its position...

[denelian.livejournal.com]

remember how you went to bed last week and the Dollar rose in relation to several other currencies?

i vote we send you back to bed :-p

seriously though... is it just me, or is WaMu the zombie bank?

[solarbird]

WaMu appears to be a zombie bank. But, well, we'll be awaiting FDIC action.

As well as FED rate actions.