Emergency meeting held (Friday night) to discuss Lehman Brothers

Source: Associated Press

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York held an emergency meeting Friday night with top Washington policymakers and major financial institutions to discuss the future of Lehman Brothers.

The meeting, which was attended by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, was held at the offices of New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy Geithner. The meeting was confirmed by Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith.

Smith refused to disclose what financial institutions participated in the meeting or whether the group had reached any conclusion over how to resolve the crisis facing Lehman Brothers.

... However, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website that this group included Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack and Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain among others.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/12/national/w191502D25.DTL&tsp=1

they can get.

get in line quick!

:kick:

Fidelity hasn't been mentioned at all in any of this mess and they're a really big player. I wonder why?

happened over a weekend? Gee, wonder why.

by the taxpayers, they decided to get into real-estate & have not come clean w/ their books.

Look for unbelievable backlash if the FED bails them out.

Besides, Washington Mutal is more important & may need hand-outs.

We are in a depression folks. Your bank could be next. They can't rescue everybody. Get on your life jacket. We have two choices: 1) each for him- or herself or 2) we pull together.

The other day, I saw my first McCain campaigners sitting at a table at the Farmer's Market. Turns out they are former mortgage brokers who used to work for Countrywide. What idiots!!!

Some people cannot put two and two together.

I had heard that if Lehman went down.. WaMu was next. This weekend will tell the story. (a story no one wants to hear..)

Wow, they must have been out of their element. I think if I saw a bunch of McCain campaigners at Farmer's Market I'd have a field day....
And why isn't the Obama campaign all over this? This is so hypocritical. Bailing out financial institutions at taxpayer expense. For years corporations have been allowed to run rampant under deregulation, not paying taxes, keeping their books and balance sheets hidden from scrutiny, outsourcing american jobs so workers have to compete with workers under regimes where children slave away for little or no wages. But these guys get a handout now that they are hurting? What about all the people who have suffered for years losing their jobs? Losing their benefits? Losing their hope? Democrats need to use this, and point the finger of blame squarely where it deserves....at crony capitalism and the republican party.

If you have deposits of $100K+ in a single institution that are link your social security number, do yourself a favor and read up on the FDIC rules here-
http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/insured/ownership.html
Banks have massive liquidity issues, many more banks will fail.
Take action now to make sure that your deposits (in excess of $100K) are insured by the FDIC.
Better safe than sorry....

no mortgage, no worries. Still have ExxonMobil stock and whole life policy with disability clause so they pay the premium I don't. Not at all sorry I sold my bank stock.

Kinda sad, because once upon a time- for many years, Washington Mutual was a fine institution:

WaMu's wild and rumor-filled week

Pressured by regulators, WaMu's board fired longtime Chief Executive Kerry Killinger on Monday. But its shares, which closed last week at $4.27, closed Friday at $2.73, down 36% for the week, in a further humiliation for what was a $45 stock early last year.

Rumors flew through the mortgage industry all week. One was that Seattle-based WaMu would cease all home lending next week. Another said Citigroup Inc. would step in to buy the thrift. And an industry publication reported Friday that JPMorgan Chase & Co. was in late-stage talks to buy WaMu.

JPMorgan, based in New York, has considered WaMu a tempting target because of its huge branch network in the West. Killinger had forged WaMu largely by acquiring California S&Ls -- American Savings, Great Western, Home Savings -- in the 1990s. Subprime credit-card specialist Providian was added in 2005.

Spokesmen for WaMu and JPMorgan declined to comment, but a person close to JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said Friday that no talks were underway.

Another report said WaMu, which has lost more than $6.3 billion over the last three quarters because of growing problems in its mortgage portfolio, might seek to sell some of its far-flung assets, such as branches in New York.

More: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-moneyblog13-2008sep13,0,6457032.story
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A fair guess might be that WAMU should have continued as Washington Mutual- and not gotten caught up in predatory lending.

When the feds get together to discuss what to do with a private financial institution that reported 691,063,000,000 in assets in its 2007 filing (http://www.lehman.com/annual/2007/fin_highlights/) what is going on, what they aren't saying is the Lehman has failed, it is bankrupt, it can't meet its obligations, and its investors, our friends the billionaires, are again in need of a bailout from uncle sam otherwise they might have to give up their yachts and their trophy house collections and their goomahs (oh wait those are the mistresses of that other set of gangsters) and their trophy wives will probably stop putting out and that would be bad for our trickle down wall street gangster fucked_economy.com.

J.C. Flowers, and the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Co. are mulling a joint bid for Lehman Brothers (LEH:Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc)
the Financial Times reported on its Web site Friday. The Bank of America-led group is among those considering an investment in Lehman, the newspaper said. The U.K. Bank, Barclays, is also another potential suitor, according to the FT. A J.C. Flowers representative declined to comment when contacted by MarketWatch.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bofa-jc-flowers-chinese-fund/story.aspx?guid=%7BFEAEB539-3FE2-42CD-95D6-159EE4028997%7D&dist=msr_9

==
However, this story is interesting:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200809122213DOWJONESDJONLINE000823_FORTUNE5.htm

SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- A senior executive at China Investment Corp. said Saturday he's unaware of any talks about CIC buying a stake in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH).

"Sorry, I haven't heard this," Jesse Wang, CIC Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, told Dow Jones Newswires when asked whether the CIC was looking into buying a stake into Lehman.