Was anyone getting richer yesterday, tw?

I didn't read the article but the headline in today's Washington Post said that shareholders lost 700 billion dollars of stock value yesterday. $700 Billion! Ouch. I personally could have purchased a huge ass plasma tv to fill a wall of my living room for the amount my 401k went down yesterday.

So were the rich getting richer yesterday?

Not true at all - They do not care if you open up multiple accounts - my guy actually suggested it to me.

What happens on one day is not significant. For example, how much did the Merrill Lynch shareholders lose? Well the guy who created that problem - O'Neal - got paid how many $hundreds of millions to leave? He is not the exception. Fortunately for investors, Thain saved enough of Merrill (in part, by making the accounting readable) that Bank of America reconsidered and saved it. Yes, Bank of America had considered buying Merrill previously but could not trust what the spread sheets said.

Look at AIG. This company has been suspect for most of the past three years. AIG was most suspect six month ago involving major illegal transactions with General Re. But what has happened recently demonstrates who is most important. Not the customers, employees, or stockholders.

AIG has obviously had a liquidity crisis for most of the last year. Martin Sullivan was removed in June because problems were known for so long, so severe, and finally became public knowledge. Like Lehman Bros, what did AIG do? Last weekend, it was obvious that AIG needed capital. Private market sources offered AIG money in exchange for what was obviously required - some Board of Director seats and some control. AIG refused. Top management has always been more important than the company.

To solve their liquidity problem, AIG needs maybe $40 billion and removal of bad management. But AIG management refuses to concede any power. Did you read where executives would not accept any salary and bonuses this year? Of course not. Instead AIG runs to the government for help.

Well, today it sounds like the government will offer corporate welfare to AIG without top management's resignations. Today, it sounds like those who love welfare to the rich may save Willumstad's job.

AIG has a long recent history of accounting fraud and impropriety. AIG is an example of why this market meltdown is ongoing and will continue. Often, only bankruptcy can solve corporate's problem - its management. That is what saved 1979 Chrysler and 1981 Ford. Bankruptcy imposed early enough can save employee jobs, stockholder value, client relationships, and the company. But that means top management must be working for the company; not for themselves.

Who is getting rich? Well who created most of these problems? AIG would refuse a private capital solution; would wait for a government bailout so that top management jobs are saved. They would risk the company to save their jobs? Of course. AIG is only secondary to the interests of those who create these problems.

Maybe a large number for one day. But only a fool views markets in one day's event. Since June, the market has dropped 20%. What is that? $2.3 trillion?

Did we really lose that money or are we learning what our actual net worth is? Are we finally learning that the average joe must will pay for a bubble that so massively enriched the rich and made "Mission Accomplished" appear so cheap? After artificially inflating the economy with debt, are we now just beginning to pay those debts? Is this a meltdown, or did the bills just come due?

Bravo tw you almost managed to get thru 2 posts without mentioning "Mission Accomplished"

Oh and lets look at the market over the last year, 5 years and 10 years whats its loss/gain thru those time frames?

Negros stop! Al Gore will fix everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NYT is reporting that AIG is going to get up to $85 *billion*. They have a reported $1 *trillion* in assets, yet are teetering on the brink of failure.

Some son of a bitch(es) is/are laughing their asses off as they fly to their private islands right now.