Our financial system is insolvent

Actually, Greenspan's remarks on This Week yesterday were somewhat comforting.

 

Local bank? Aren't those dead?

Seriously, I'm with Wachovia right now but have been looking at moving what money I have to Bank of America ... except now, I'm concerned that BofA is taking on too many troubled assets (first Countrywide, now Merrill Lynch). May have to take another look at the local credit union.

 

Luckily, there's a pretty good regional bank down here. I suspect it'll be OK as doesn't hold much mortgage debt.

 

Speaking of the housing market, whatever happened to Almost_Famous? I'd like to hear what he has to say about the bursting of the housing bubble, given that he always held that there was no housing bubble.

 

I am partisan, considering I work for one of these institutions, but if you do some research you will find that these are performing much better than their peers (and Wachovia and BofA) and are good places to have your money: BB&T, PNC, and Wells Fargo.

 

Good for them. None of them are here.

 

I have become allergic to banks in general (credit unions are the way to go unless you are going into business for yourself.) But BB&T saved my relatively meager nest egg years ago when one of their brokers made sure to stick my money in ultra-safe bonds while I was waiting for a "freeze-out" period to expire during a 401k rollover. In the interim, 9-11-01 happened.

 

21, the SEC's statement on Lehman

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-197.htm

 

aig has lost 70 percent of its stock value today, according to cnbc.

 

I wonder if AIG will be around long enough for me to renew my car insurance with it. In early November.

By the way, someone mentioned local banks -- some of them can be in just as much trouble, especially those in suburban and exurban areas that did a lot of home loans.

 

a few credit unions around here have gone under recently, too, mostly smaller ones that apparently over-extended with mortgages.

 

cnbc folks are saying aig has 24 hours to 48 hours to straighten itself out, especially if the ratings agencies downgrade their securities. (at least, that's what i think they're saying.) stock now down 50 percent on the day.

poin, does that sound accurate?

and berkshire hathaway swallowing aig? really? (apparently, dow jones newswire is reporting this.)