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bkkandrew

Now this is funny:

Lehman Brothers collapse leaves 1m sq.ft of unlet space in Docklands - Telegraph

who

I agree with you about Lehman being insured by AIG is both funny and ironic.

But don't worry excessively about all the damage that Lehman's demise will have. The various parts of the firm will be bought by other players and continue to be run, more or less, as usual. There will be some minor long term loss of jobs but that could be called efficiency. The real hurt will be suffered by the shareholders who will essentially be wiped out. But that's as it should be. They ignore the risk of being over leveraged.

Butterfly

where ? link ?

bkkandrew

Crisis spreads East:

Russia Offers Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank $44 Billion of Loans

By Alex Nicholson

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russia's government will loan the country's three biggest banks, OAO Sberbank, VTB Group and OAO Gazprombank, as much as 1.13 trillion rubles ($44 billion) for at least three months to boost liquidity.

``These are market-making banks capable of insuring the liquidity of the banking system,'' the Finance Ministry said in a statement today. The government and central bank will take more measures to improve liquidity this week, the ministry said.

State-run Sberbank can borrow as much as 754 billion rubles, VTB has a limit of 268.5 billion rubles and Gazprombank can get 103.9 billion rubles, the ministry said. About 400 billion rubles more of unspent budget funds is available to other banks.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

bkkandrew

Funnily enough, about an hour after I posted this the Russian stock market closed indefinately. The authorities said it would not reopen until a plan could be formulated to prevent a further collapse in stock prices.

Righto, good luck with that!

bkkandrew

HBOS (Halifax, Bank of Scotland) shares down another 40% on the day. Debt rating cut by Fitch.

Is today the tay for them to be bailed out/go bust?

Bloomberg.com: Investment Tools

Spin

Bloomberg.com

Butterfly

yeah, still couldn't see the collapse of the entire financial system as bkka put it,

you two were probably too young to remember 1987, and even the small crash of 1991 after the Kuwait invasion, back then it was also the end of the world according to the press, and the public was also in total panic,

people have short memory when it comes to bubble and burst of bubble,

bkkandrew

AIG bailed out by FED for $85BILLION...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/bu...hp&oref=slogin


Isn't it amazing that the Merkins think you shouldn't have a national health service (because its 'communist'), thus leaving 40m Americans uninsured but its apparently fine for the US Government to own their largest insurance company.

Spin

Well, I'm not convinced that the shareholders would be totally aware of the irresponsible behavior of those that ran the company that led to the over leveraging.
But if you believe that the average man on the street deserves to lose his retirement funds or whatever then I hope you sleep well with that.

who

We, and that includes myself, as stock buyers (via whatever vehicle) enjoy higher earnings then we would as lenders. If we don't realize there are higher risks then we should. The excuse of "oh I didn't know" doesn't work.
If one wants less risk buy bonds but be prepared for less income.
We seem to live in a time when anything negative that happens to us is someone elses fault. That doesn't work either. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Spin

LEHMAN EXECS TO LEAD SLIGHTLY LESS OPULENT LIFESTYLES

EXECUTIVES at Lehman Brothers could be forced to manually adjust the seating temperature in their Mercedes, it was claimed last night.


Dick's going to be fine, thank goodness.


As America's fourth largest investment bank collapsed, the management team have downgraded their executive limousine orders for next year insisting they can no longer afford the automatic body heat regulator and the climate controlled glove box.

Lehman chief executive Dick Fuld said: "Be in no doubt, the long term effects of this collapse are going to be awful. For you.

"You're going to lose your job, your dignity and possibly your home. I don't need a job - per se - but I will miss accumulating more money than I and all my descendants could ever reasonably spend.


"I don't know what I'd do if I hadn't spent my career paying myself millions of dollars and accruing a vast personal fortune while taking pointless risks with people's hard earned savings.

"But I hope my unimaginable wealth and wide ranging property portfolio will make your extreme hardship that bit easier to bear.

"Would you be happier if I sat out the recession in Acapulco or Martha's Vineyard? Please do let me know."

He added: "But it won't all be plain sailing. Though, it has to be said, I will be doing quite a lot of plain sailing, especially in early June. Do you sail?

"Next year's Mercedes is already looking distinctly shabby, while this winter in Aspen we may have to 'eat in' one night. We've decided to open a tin of macaroni cheese and pretend to be ordinary."

Fuld said he would also be able to devote more time to his role with New York charity the Robin Hood Foundation, which, he insisted, was not 'some sick fucking joke'.

source

Spin

^ From Fiction, to fact:

"Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain could get up to $11 million (EUR7.7 million) from restricted stock following the merger of his investment bank with Bank of America Corp. though the stock options he received when taking the job last December are worthless.
How much Thain receives depends upon the value of Bank of America when the merger is completed, said Laurence Wagman, a consultant at James F Reeda. "The more he gets, the better Merrill's shareholders will have done," he said.
Thain was hired to oversee Merrill on Nov. 16 of last year. On that day, a Friday, Merrill shares were trading at $56. Last Friday, prior to the deal being struck with Bank of America, they closed at $17.06."

Not bad, thats about a million dollars a month for sitting around waiting for the shit to hit the fan

source

bkkandrew

^I set my first business up in 1989, so I am quite aware of how to operate in a nasty recession. The current capitulation bears no comparison.

bkkandrew

Anecdotal reports on a 'silent' run on HBOS in UK amid share price collapse of 50% in two days.

I think that they could be soon too now...

who

Could you rewrite your post, I can't make it out. Thanks

bkkandrew

When this all started breaking this afternoon (Thai time), I was typing fast again (with all fingers ) and I meant there was a lot of anocdotal reports of about 2-3BN sterling withdrawels. I called this silent as it was on-line, rather than the obvious queueing at the branch type.

Events rather overtook me to bother editing the post.

Spin

I remember it, and having read a little bit on the supposed causes I can treally seem to find any comparable events to whats going on today. I mean events like Lehman dont happen too often, it was a 157 year old company.
Lehmans just one small piece in the jigsaw of disaster thats taking place now.
In some ways I'd like to see a crash, because I'd be waiting at the bottom with limit orders to fill my boots and retire early

Butterfly

and you are not alone, and this is exactly why market rebounds and the end of the world isn't coming, there is always an opportunity, an incentive to get back into the game, only massive inflation can wipe out any incentives, not a crash

LBH was overexposed, got burned, leave the space for others, that's how it works

Remember how the large edge funds got wiped out only a few years ago (LCM) ? Remember WorldCom ? ENRON ? these were also huge fuckers, collapsed, market panic etc... etc...

bkkandrew

The problem is (and a main reason why this will result in total failure of the banking system) is that sensible 'crashes' have been prevented, postponed and rolled-up into this one for the last 15 years.