Apparently this financial thing wasn't a one day occurrence

Imagine my shock when I woke up today and saw that this massive financial collapse wasn't a one day story. I appears there's more stuff going on and that people might be talking about this all week. Fuck. I've just about summoned all the market information I posses, and used up my stores of financial information. I give you the last of what I know, use it to help yourselves: money is green, it can be traded for goods and services. Pass it on, don't keep it to yourselves.

In scanning the various stories on this event you see the constant repetition of headline words like 'meltdown', 'crisis', 'collapse', 'fire sale', 'plunges', and 'clusterfuckpocalypse'. That last one was the Wall Street Journal headline today in big 30 point letters. Those aren't reassuring words.

Today the news is what everybody's doing to save AIG. The Fed told them to get stuffed after a $40 million loan was requested. Now it appears they need somewhere in the range of $75 billion just to avoid bankruptcy......for now. Investment banks are trying to put together a deal to get them the 75 extra large. AIG has been allowed to pull $20 billion from their subsidiaries, usually illegal but waived in this case. If they don't get the money, bankruptcy is a comin'. Goldman Sach's, one of the last 2 independent investment banks, also posted it's worst quarter since it went public, a 71% drop in profits, and their stock is down almost 50% in the last year. So, good news there.

At least WSJ sees the bright side. Their Moneywatch section posted up a article on the winners and losers of this weekend, because the best way to analyze the repercussions is to look at the meltdown as if it were the Golden Globes. John Thain, who ran Merrill Lynch, is a winner. Because evidently selling off a company you ran into the ground with stupid decisions is better than just straight running it into the ground like Lehman CEO Dick Fuld, who is a loser. It was a bad weekend, maybe we have to adjust the expectations of a winners and losers list. Winner: people who didn't have to sell their shirt. Loser: shirtless and pantsless wretches.

So, yay capitalism. If you reside in a financial hub try not to get crushed by any bankers jumping out of highrises. Those boys really pick up steam when they leap from their top floor offices.