Winthrop H. Smith Jr., a former Merrill executive whose father helped build the firm, said the acquisition would represent "a very sad moment for myself and my family and the thousands of families who worked for Merrill Lynch over our 94-year history, sad to see a firm that always prided itself on its independence absorbed" into another. -------------------------------------- It wasn't sad when the firm was mismanaged and levered bals to the wall though. This pompous ass is lucky they didn't have to file for bk.
Its sad, Piss all you want. But what has happened here is a direct result of getting what you wish for. In 1998 people wanted deregulation and we got it. These firms are very guilty or I should say the shareholders, BOD, and C-levels, But had we maintained glass-stegall we wouldn't be in this mess. If your competitors are jumping off roofs in the short-run driven, free market, you jump also and let the insurance and the lawyers figure it our later. Had government not continued to try and inflate away this bubble which has been brewing since the 98 debt crisis, we also would not be in this mess. Now your great grand kids will be speaking mandarin and praying to Allah Lehman, BS, WaMu, ML, they are just the canaries in the coal mine. When China flinches, All is lost.
SAD?????????? WTF They werent sad in 2002 when they first became a player in CDOS, then by 2006 became the largest underwriter of these products. SAD???????????????? Didnt they realize the risk they took, or was it GREED.