Remember “Private Accounts”?
Via atrios, some reveries of yesteryear. Remember when Bush and McCain wanted to invest our Social Security in the stock market:
Bush: Here’s why the personal accounts are a better deal. Your money will grow, over time, at a greater rate than anything the current system can deliver — and your account will provide money for retirement over and above the check you will receive from Social Security.
Up!:
In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself on Sunday to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer.
The American International Group is seeking a $40 billion bridge loan from the Federal Reserve, as it faces a potential downgrade from credit ratings agencies that could spell its doom, a person briefed on the matter said Sunday night.
Ratings agencies threatened to downgrade the insurance giant’s credit rating by Monday morning, allowing counterparties to withdraw capital from their contracts with the company. One person close to the firm said that if such an event occurred, A.I.G. may survive for only 48 hours to 72 hours.
Markets sank in Europe and Asia on Monday after one of the most dramatic weekends on Wall Street saw the collapse of the bank Lehman Brothers and the takeover of Merrill Lynch.
Benchmark stock indexes in Europe and Asia tumbled, while on Wall Street, stock index futures were down sharply, suggesting that shares would drop when trading opened in New York. Crude oil was also down, trading at about $97 a barrel in electronic trading.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am
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