Doooom!

[andrewducker]

Just noticed that Lehman Brothers have gone bankrupt and Merrill Lynch has been sold off before the same happened to it (at a ridiculous markup).

I wonder if there'll be an international finance sector left when I get back from holiday.

Comments

[chuma.livejournal.com]

Yup, but it will be owned by the American Government and propped up by Microsoft :)

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure that the American Government can afford to buy too many more failing financial giants.

[jccw.livejournal.com]

More to the point, isn't the whole point of capitalism that if you screw up, you go out of business? This whole buyout thing reveals how hypocritical all this rhetoric about capitalism and deregulation is: as soon as the wheels fall off it's left to the government to pick up the pieces.

More seriously, I suspect that the real problem here is that all of the people who benefited from the irresponsible lending practices etc. have pulled their money out of the system, and are now living it up in Antigua or something and donating to McCain. So by buying out the smoking wrecks they left behind, the govt is effectively not only sticking the taxpayer with the bill for the rampant fraud legitimized by the 7.5 years of financial deregulation by Bush, but also with the advertising bill for selling the next round.

</bitter>

[davidcook.livejournal.com]

<smug>My employer (for the next 14 days, at least) is doing quite well (relatively speaking).</smug>

... errr, why are we leaving, again ? :-)