Merrill is expecting huge job losses with the merger.

Wow, I knew it was going to be bad.... but I didn't know it was going to be THIS bad.

As for BRIC, I'm not so sure about that. China is down 50% for good reason. Much of their "growth" was absolute BS, just like the ages of the gymnasts and the empty buildings in Beijing. A lot of smoke and mirrors.

Yes - though Russia and china have been hammered in the last few months -- but Friday was a huge bounce -- I expect that tomorrow may be up too as the us financial markets continue to melt...

Times like these, correlations amongst stock markets are ONE. Wouldn't bet on BRICs. Cash is king.

Holy it crap. Never knew this would happen. Merrill no more? Lehman no more? AIG? WaMu? Who else? Just a week ago, I was thinking, "is this the bottom (pre-lehman stock drop)?"

Well, steve, I think you're going to get the crash you've been talking about. I had my doubts until now. But I still have to remain an optimist and look for the silver linings. Rather than looking for what the next show is to drop, I'm still going to tell myself that this is so bad that it must be the bottom of the credit crisis. WaMu, AIG, etc...... that's a little too much to take in in the same week that two Wall Street heavies cease to exist. This is like Drexel's sudden evaporation into thin air, except that it's three or four times larger.

show/shew/shoe, cain't even spull!

Worse then most can ever imagine. This is a terrible day for NYC and America. I wish those who will lose their job the best of luck and speedy recovery.

Right on, dco. The reality of this is starting to set in.

At this point it's all about employment. Even if the market finishes up today the damage to NYC RE is done. Without a job, getting a mortgage is impossible. Merrill and Lehman may account for more then 15,000 jobs lost. It's actually difficult to say. In just 12 hours 15,000 people are going to be out of work.

dco - wil more tax cuts to the uber wealthy fix this problem? Also are the fundamentals of the economy strong as McCain said this morning? How could a country with a fundamentally strong economy have any kind of drop?

dco, I agree with you again. Its NYC's turn.

The rest of the country already had its smackdown. And the dow isn't even at its bottom, its still above that. The rest of the country already took its lumps.

Now its about NYC. There is a TON of money draining out of it right now. And anyone who thinks the foreigners will step in to save it NOW, when they look over and see our big banks keeling over, and they're having their OWN money problems.

All I can say is...

pop.

"Friday was a huge bounce"

What was hammered in BRIC was commodities - down 50% on a 20% fall in commodity prices. China lowered interest rates and reserve requirements, and is growing at 9%. Brazil is done raising interest rates, is growing at 6.1%. Some (especially in China) is exports, but most is domestic growth. They have markets large enough to grow organically, and especially Brazil (and unlike the US) sustainable fiscal policy.

If you think that outsourcing in India has ended, you're wrong.

Russia is problematic from a political point of view, but you can't underestimate their resources. Considering how hard it was for us to transition to democracy - remember the Revolution, the Civil War, women's suffrage - and the hundreds of years it too, Russia isn't doing too bad.

I vote for emerging markets because I saw what happened to Spain and Portugal after they joined the EU. There is pent-up demand and a huge desire to move away from the past. I won't bet on Argentina because they drank the same fiscal Kool-Aid as the Bush Administration (on course to beat Millard Fillmore as the worst administration ever), but I will bet on Lula.

And in a separate comment, it's time for NYC to start to diversify its economy, stop punishing small business through the UBT and non-recognition of S-Corporations. Our Medicaid system must be overhauled along the lines of California's. Government payrolls need to be slashed, and teachers need to be held accountable.

Accountable?! Novel thought, ha?

Can you imagine if the Patterson slashes Gov't employees to minimum wage (until a balanced budget is completed) like the Govenrator is trying to do in California....I think that will get everyone's attention pretty quick...

I guess its a good time to implment that millionaire's tax....seeing that we a losing hundreds of them by the day....

I have no idea what the State and Local Gov't are going to be doing over the next few months, but its going to be nothing short of ugly...

And that's who the demise of Wall Street has an impact on all of us regular people...

Waiting on deck, AIG

Millionaire's tax? There's not gonna be many of those guys in NYS in TY '09.

Oh, by the way, NJ State Pension Fund took a major bath on Lehman. I see no one blaming Corzine.

You know, I think I'll head out to Starbucks for a coffee. First one in years. Things are starting to get better.

They truly are, despite the pain.

steve & others - what happened last time we were in this spot was that the large financial houses and corporations threatened to relocate their offices to NJ or other lower-tax locales, and thereby extract large tax concessions from the City - it will happen again

lowery - ummmm, why in the world would they need large tax concessions when they are going to be able to use their writedowns / losses to not pay taxes for the conceivable future?

I just heard it too NYC10022...

pop.

garelj - good point! But they all cried rivers of crocodile tears and got huge concessions from the City in the early '90s. Of course, an unwinding company isn't going to threaten to move anywhere, because an unwinding company isn't moving anywhere at all. Maybe their landlords will ask for relief.