A Continuation of 9/11

[wrenb]

I don't know much about what's going on with Lehman Bros. or Merrill Lynch, only what I heard on the news this morning. I'm sort of sentimental about the big Wall Street investment banks. My dad worked for Merrill in the 1980s and then went on to a consulting business where his clients were the investment banks. I grew up hearing about his schedule: Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette, Swiss Bank, Shearson Lehman, they were all names I heard over the dinner table.

And now they're falling. It feels like the continuation of 9/11. That day Wall Street started to tumble and the rubble landed around the man in Liberty Plaza. And now the firms are failing and falling. The New York of my childhood recedes further into history.

Comments

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

it's more that the big Wall St firms have been spending money like it was going out of fashion, hocking themselves up to the eyeballs, then when the demand for payment comes in they go "oops! No real money to pay!".

Gross irresponsibility lies at the foot of this whole mess :(

[clarkger.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the average person out there who bought too much house, borrowed too much money, and generally lived above his means. This is a huge, society-wide problem and I look forward to it being corrected. I only hope we don't lose all DH's income in the process.

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

if you haven't done so already, I highly recommend reading Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace book (borrow from your library!). It helped me to get the right attitude to money!

Where does your DH work?

[clarkger.livejournal.com]

My DH is a trader, a NASDAQ market-maker. He pretty much works for himself, trading for hedge and mutual funds. As such, he is not salaried -- he takes his portion of his production, after overhead and salaries for his employees are paid out. Most people think that if the market tanks, he's screwed, but that's not the case (necessarily.) But a lot of his customers are having a really hard time and this sort of day just kills the overall mojo on Wall St.

We've both seen this coming for a loooong time (and we live and save as such) but it still stinks.

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

fewer people make money in a sinking market as in a rising market, but there are opportunities available for those who are smart :)

[zathrus.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. D and T have college funds with Merrill Lynch. This should be interesting....

Newt

[jminnis.livejournal.com]

Big companies fail and or get bought sometimes, normally in bunches. The one that hit me emotionally is when McDonnell-Douglass got bought by Boeing. Probably half my extended family has worked for McDonnell-Douglass at one time or another.

I don't expect to see any major banks completely fold. There is almost always a price at which it makes sense for one bank to buy another because the assets are almost all non-physical. Of course, the flip side of that is that there is the very real danger that news about a bank causes a run which exacerbates the crisis.

[nineybear.livejournal.com]

there is the very real danger that news about a bank causes a run which exacerbates the crisis.

Yes. That appears in fact to be what happened to Bear.