They're doing the reverse of what they did in the past. Now, they have to get this stuff back on the balance sheet; they'll do more raises, and have less in which to make money. With little leverage and capital, they won't make serious money for years. that's the idea of the July order 'no naked shorting'. They are giving these idiots a chance to raise some capital, which is more than the brokers did for some of their clients. this is a long way from over. A long way............
http://www.forbes.com/wallstreet/2008/08/11/merrill-auction-rate-biz-wall-cx_lm_0812merrill.html When I was in the business, I used to hate, when something went wrong, and the asshole that ran the place would say, "Well fuck 'em. They shoulda known better." Then, I'd go nuts. "You bastards spend how many millions a year telling the public we know what we're doing, and then, when it goes wrong, you walk???" It'll never change without a perp walk. And it looks like Galvin will do it.
wall street wonders why it lost most of its customers to discount brokers...duh 1. '80s junk bond scandal 2. '90 recession 3. LTCM 4. 2000 tech bust 5. (fill in the blank) instead of screwing Grandma out her money, W$ created a way to do it on a larger scale.
So many stories. Working late one night. Phone rings. An elderly lady was on the phone. "Is Mr. XXXXXX there?" "No. Can I help you? "Why yes. You see. I'm in the Puts and Calls program. And, I just got my statement. What does "e - x - p" mean?" When options first hit retail accounts, Wall St. wiped out more people than smallpox. One guy at Hutton, an ex cop if you can believe that, opened an IRA with 2000.00 for a woman, and convinced her to trade it with options. Really. And you wonder why Hutton closed????? When he got down to no equity, he sold some puts - naked. Made a hit, traded till zero. He did $2000 in commissions in an account that had 2000 in it. I can't remember why, but she called in, wasn't even really mad. But told the broker who answered, "you know, he didn't even kiss me. But I know I got screwed." I was a rookie way back then. And pretty straight laced. I can't even remember if we had a compliance dept. That's how obscure it was. I think complaints went straight to legal.
f%$k perp walks, thats gay. Bring Back Public Hanging The managers of _______ ________ were today given their year end bonus , courtesy of the people they 'serviced'
Point well taken. It's not like they didn't know what they were doing when they did it. They just didn't think they'd get caught.
hmm a photo of the execution of the Lincoln assassination conspirators with the condemned lady on the left given the courtesy of an umbrella to shade her from the sun.. her only crime was owning the boarding house where the plot was hatched.. hey.. there's a plan!!!