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Wall Street's biggest firms have written down at least $40 billion as prices of mortgage-related assets dwindle because of record foreclosures. Morgan Stanley has 251 percent of its equity in Level 3 assets, making it the most vulnerable to writedowns, followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at 185 percent, according to Janjuah. Goldman, the biggest U.S. securities firm, fell 4 percent in New York trading today.
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From
Bloomberg
Edit to add:
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Look at the info Citigroup just filed with the SEC today: they have $135 BILLION in LEVEL 3 ASSETS.
I have a neat idea.
Why don't we take every single major financial institution out there and then divide their total Level 3 assets by their equity capital base and make comparisons?
This will give us a better idea as to which of them may really remain solvent at the end of the day. Shall we?
Let's have a look at Citigroup. Their equity base is $128 billion. Therefore, their Level 3 assets to equity ratio: 105%
How about Goldman Sachs? Level 3 assets are $72 billion, equity base is $39 billion. Their Level 3 assets to equity ratio is 185%.
Morgan Stanley: $88 billion in Level 3, equity base is $35 billion. Ratio: 251% (WOW!)
Bear Stearns: $20 billion in Level 3, equity base is $13 billion. Ratio: 154%
Lehman Brothers: $35 billion in Level 3, $22 billion in equity. Ratio: 159%
Merrill Lynch: $16 billion in Level 3, $42 billion in equity. Ratio: 38%
Here is the Level 3 assets to equity ratio summary:
* Citigroup 105%
* Goldman Sachs 185%
* Morgan Stanley 251%
* Bear Stearns 154%
* Lehman Brothers 159%
Merrill Lynch 38%
This becomes very interesting now, doesn't it?
Looks to me like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are by far in the WORST situation among the investment banks.
And yet the media is focusing all of their attention on Merrill Lynch---which actually has by far THE LEAST EXPOSURE of all of them. What a joke.
As I said before, the media should stop diverting attention and trying to make this into a "Merrill-specific" problem.
All of the investment banks are in deep trouble. These numbers should make that extremely evident. The deception must be exposed.
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From
write offs to reach 500 Billion $ ??