January 2009

As rotten mortgages continue to cripple the balance sheets of large companies, beleaguered executives face yet another looming risk to their stock prices. Massive writedowns related to past M&A deals, where companies bought up en masse bad mortgage mills and finance companies during the go-go bubble years. Many of these M&A deals were made at the worst possible time, epic bad bets made right ... read more

Despite a full year of being in detox, the U.S. banking system is still lurching around in a hospital gown. What is working, and what is not, and how will the incoming Administration deal with one of the worst economic crises to hit the world's largest superpower since the Great Depression? The markets need to clear, and clear out now, the bad assets acting like an anvil on bank balance ... read more

Bad fourth quarter numbers pre-announced at Citigroup and Bank of America now provide a road sign for where the two financial giants are headed this year. After reporting a massive $8.3 bn loss, more than double what Wall Street expected, Citigroup announced it will break itself in two, a development FOX Business has been reporting since November of 2008, when the government gave Citigroup a ... read more

Citigroup now plans to pre-announce its earnings this Friday instead of its original earnings release scheduled for Jan. 22, in a move to calm the waters about its potentially bad earnings results. Fox Business reported last week that insiders are saying Citi's fourth quarter could be the "worst in the company's history," with losses potentially surmounting $10 bn. And as Fox Business has ... read more

Nasty fights are breaking out behind the scenes at Merrill Lynch and its new parent company, Bank of America (BAC). Defections are picking up speed, as top guns have quit at Merrill Lynch. But company insiders say the reasons for the fights and the defections go beyond the obvious problems of office power plays, and of melding a freewheeling, backslapping brokerage culture with a staid, ... read more