Just another Monday on the street
... Wall Street, that is.
After a wild weekend hosted by the NY Fed, Lehman will liquidate after getting no buyers since Hank Paulson finally drew a line in the sand and wouldn't put taxpayer money at risk to bail out Lehman and no one wanted to touch the toxic waste dump that apparently was Lehman's balance sheet without government backing. Is this finally the end of derivatives.
Bank of America, considering Lehman if the government would have "back stopped" potential losses thought better of the idea and scooped up Merrill Lynch, probably a better fit anyway. Fresh off their takeover of Countrywide, this most likely positions BofA very well in the rapidly changing financial marketplace.
Stock are down early but not as sharply as forecast (-180, 10:57AM).
A couple of great links courtesy of WSJ.
Ultimatum by Paulson sparked frantic end.
Bank of America to buy Merrill.