check out the chart – Merrill Write-Downs to Date… I searched all over the web, but was unable to find a cumulative total of write-downs to date for Merrill Lynch. Below is my attempt to piece together what I calculated at ~$40B in write-downs to date. For comparison’s sake, Merrill’s equity market cap at today’s close was ~$24B…  econompicdata blog

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Bagehot’s Rule and the Cost of Being “Technically Insolvent” – John P. Hussman, Ph.D. – “Very large loans at very high rates are the best remedy” – Hussman Funds

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Big NYT article on Indymac: Lax Lending Standards Led to IndyMac’s Downfall – VIKAS BAJAJ 

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Slide Show: 12 new ‘needs’ that drain your cash – Your mind-set about needs versus wants may determine whether you thrive or flounder. Here’s a closer look at some of the entitlements that people think they must have. – BankRate MSN Money

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Oil: This Time, It’s Different – Global Pressures Have Converged to Forge a New Oil Reality – Steven Mufson – The two events, half a world apart, went largely unheralded.  … – Washington Post

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Wonder Why? – Wachovia’s rates on CDs bringing billions in deposits – Bank betting that above-average interest will lure and keep customers. – Christina Rexrode – Charlotte Observer

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Is Eight Enough? - posted by darenb – The number of properties with some sort of foreclosure action against them (default notice, auction notice, bank repossession) has consistently risen for the past eight quarters (see chart). – Foreclosure Pulse

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S&P Press Release: Record Low Annual Declines Recorded in May 2008 for the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite Home Price Indices  – … home-price index for 20 metro areas fell a record 15.8 percent in May compard to May 2007, with a year-over-year index drop of 28.4 percent in Las Vegas, 28.3 percent in Miami and 26.5 percent in Phoenix. … – Standard & Poors
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LendingTree Moves into FHA Lead Generation – PAUL JACKSON – It’s official: the FHA gravy train is on its way, at least for mortgage professionals. …  adds $300 billion in muscle to the Federal Housing Administration … And LendingTree … timing a rollout of consumer-facing tools that ostensibly allow consumers to shop for an FHA-insured loan.  – housingwire

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For the FDIC, a Servicing Transfer of Historic Proportions -  PAUL JACKSON – … Consider that IndyMac held the nation’s 8th largest residential mortgage servicing portfolio, at $200.7 billion  … The next closest comparison would be Superior Bank, which failed in July 2001 and serviced a $3.7 billion portfolio of securitized subprime mortgages … This is more than 50 times larger. … – housingwire 

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Merrill & Lone Star – An Investment Firm That Prospered From Past Crises Turns to Mortgages – Jenny Anderson – … The deal was classic Grayken: Lone Star, which has a long history of swooping down on troubled assets, paid 22 cents on the dollar for investments with a face value of nearly $31 billion. Mr. Grayken’s firm even got Merrill to finance 75 percent of the purchase price. If the investments turn out to be worthless, Merrill, not Lone Star, will be on the hook for most of the losses.  … – New York Times
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Read this – In this Week’s Institutuional Risk Analyst, go to the section titled “Black Monday and the GSEs”.  – The IRA received the following note last week from a reader named Marie, who describes banks suddenly walking away from loan workouts as a result of worries about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Send any comments to our attention and we’ll pass them along  … more follows. 

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Cool – A New Way to Hedge Interest Rate Spreads and Fed Policy Further Out the Yield Curve – … The new OIS futures contract will track the overnight effective Federal Funds rate, a major benchmark for the U.S. short-term interest rate market. The contract will reflect the Federal Funds rate compounded over a three-month period that ends on the contract’s expiration date.  Because the OIS futures contract will cover the same time period as a Eurodollar future, the contract will provide market participants with a direct and efficient way to trade the spread between 3-month LIBOR and 3-month overnight financing costs.  … – riskcenter.com
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Wanna Buy Merrill? – Merrill’s Moves Make It More Appealing Takeover Candidate - … CreditSights also says   … Merrill has an attractive asset management business, a global capital market operation, a large stake in BlackRock, and a bank.  Many of these business units would make the company more attractive as a take over candidate, CreditSights says. “We believe that in such case, potential acquirers could include Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Bank of America, and JPMorganChase” – Research Recap