rigorousintuition.ca

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All right now on CNBC.

On MSNBC, the cable listing says:

THE MIND OF MANSON. Charles, that is.

It is in fact a McCain biography! Someone having fun with the data.

Anyway, the crash is on TODAY and 90 percent aren't really aware of it.

Here we go !!!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122142278543033525.html?mod=special_coverage
In a rushed bid to ride out the storm sweeping American finance, 94-year-old Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed late Sunday to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. for roughly $44 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehman_Brothers#Bankruptcy

Gentlepeople:

This is one of the biggest days in banking history. A testament to the stupidity of our media or us in that this is not blanket coverage on all networks (most Americans would find it boring--which is probably how we got into this in the first place--i.e., variable-rate mortgages). The Nikkei is off tomorrow, I believe, so other than Australia it will be the European markets by the wee hours.

We just got over the crest of the hill on the roller coaster. Hold on tight, its only going to get worse.

gold is up over 20.00 in reaction.
good thing the nikki is off tomorrow, might give some breathing room, or at least another few hours to sort things out......

adding in edit: dollar continues down

it's going to be a bumpy ride......

2nd edit: tried to get a bette davis pic but it didn't post:
http://pics.livejournal.com/martiw/pic/ ... b/s320x240

Is this even legal for the rest of the financial world? Did the market being open on Sunday just screw people out of Billions of dollars? If they were waiting for the market to open before they dumped their shares they just got hosed. big time.


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare emergency trading session opened Sunday afternoon to allow Wall Street dealers in the $455 trillion derivatives market reduce their exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers.


U.S. regulators and bankers were making last-ditch efforts on Sunday to prevent toxic assets from ailing Lehman Brothers (LEH.N) spilling into global markets and rupturing investor faith in the international financial system.

"This is an extremely, and I stress extremely, rare event. It also speaks to the more general notion that, in today's highly disrupted financial markets, the unthinkable is thinkable," said Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of Pimco, the world's biggest bond fund, based in Newport Beach, California.

The session opened at 2 p.m. and was due to run until 4 p.m. New York time (1800 to 2000 GMT), according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. See text . ISDA later extended it for another two hours.

Trading involved credit, equity, rates, foreign exchange and commodity derivatives. ISDA confirmed a "netting trading session" was taking place for over-the-counter derivatives, in which trades that offset each other are settled.

ISDA estimates the OTC derivatives market excluding commodities has a value of $455 trillion.

Market sources said the special session was initiated by the Federal Reserve.

The aim is to reduce risk associated with a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

"Trades are contingent on a bankruptcy filing at or before 11:59 p.m. New York time Sunday (0359 GMT)," said the statement. "If there is no filing, the trades cease to exist."

Britain's Barclays Plc (BARC.L), which had appeared to be the frontrunner to take over Lehman -- excluding its bad mortgage-related assets -- pulled out of the bidding early in the afternoon, according to a person familiar with the matter.

That raised the risk of a Lehman bankruptcy. Lehman hired law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges to prepare a potential bankruptcy filing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday in its online edition, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The special session "is a way to offset the risk between the remaining large banks and insurance companies and fund managers prior to the markets opening in Asia," said Mark Grant, managing director of structured finance at Southwest Securities, based in Dallas.

Grant is expecting a turbulent session when the U.S. markets reopen for business on Monday.

"No one has any idea about the credit quality of the assets in Lehman's portfolio and no one has a handle about the size of the CDS contracts," he said.

"The market is going to be spooked. People will be fearful and no one outside a very small group of people knows what Lehman going into liquidation will mean."

If there is a forced sale or liquidation, "this could set off another round of writedowns globally."

(Reporting by Karen Brettell, Jennifer Ablan and Walden Siew)

(Writing by Ciara Linnane and Chris Sanders

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare emergency trading session opened Sunday afternoon to allow Wall Street dealers in the $455 trillion derivatives market reduce their exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers.

Whaaaaaaaat?

chiggerbit wrote:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare emergency trading session opened Sunday afternoon to allow Wall Street dealers in the $455 trillion derivatives market reduce their exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers.

Whaaaaaaaat?

Yep, unless the Fed takes em, looks like its gonna go belly up...
I guess mainstream news has been waved off of all this to some degree, to keep people from running the banks, because just in the last couple of days we have:
Merrill Lynch
Lehman
Washington Mutual

And mainstream press acts likes its a "yawn" event...

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs probably are not far behind too.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... 9MIfH0pHVE

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. prepared to file for bankruptcy after Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp. abandoned talks to buy the U.S. securities firm and Wall Street prepared for its possible liquidation.

Lehman and its lawyers are getting ready to file the documents for bankruptcy protection tonight, said a person with direct knowledge of the firm’s plans. A final decision hasn’t been made, though none of the other options being considered appeared likely, the person said, declining to be identified because the discussions haven’t been made public.

well, they would only be swapping things back and forth amongst themselves right? Still, kinda funny.

.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare emergency trading session opened Sunday afternoon to allow Wall Street dealers in the $455 trillion derivatives market reduce their exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers.

But remember kids: Trading on inside information is a very, very bad thing. "Everybody doesn't do it." Just say no!

Actually, this sounds like those fuckers got to play most fun poker game ever. (Buy in @ $20 trillion.)

"This is an extremely, and I stress extremely, rare event."

wait, hold on,greenspan says it's nothing to worry about. Nothing to see here.
move along, move along.....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday said he suspected "we will see other major financial firms fail," but it did not need to be a problem.

http://www.reuters.com/article/email/id ... 8220080914

"It also speaks to the more general notion that, in today's highly disrupted financial markets, the unthinkable is thinkable"

...

Wow!

How is this anything more than white-collar looting, as the disaster hits?

Quick! Grab what you can! Run!

What a bunch of fucking crooks!

Isn't anybody in charge any more? Good god!

Uk stockk exchange dropped 2%in the first 10 minutes of trading. What I'm waiting for is when real people loose trust in the banks are want their money back - this is just the start of something, buy gold I tells ya...