Replies to post #54838 on Biotech Values

[Biowatch]

[OT} E*Trade wants you to know it's still in business

Headline from Tuesday's Wall Street Journal:
E*Trade Plunges 59%
On Analyst Warnings;
Bank Unit Goes Awry

Story from today's Wall Street Folly:
http://wallstfolly.typepad.com/wallstfolly/

E*Trade: "See You Tomorrow. Opening Bell."
E*Trade wants everyone to know it's still in business. This appeared as a full page ad in today's Wall Street Journal....


WSF Headline Roundup - 11/15/07 - E*Trade rules out CH11; New NYSE CEO; Barclays $2.7 billion write down; Bear write-down could have been worse; Warren Buffett goes to Washington; Cerberus wants out of United Rentals deal...

[zipjet]

[OT] The class I was putting WM in was that of high financial leverage. It belongs there. Fortunately, it will not be subjected to having its mortgage* portfolio marked to market. If it was, it would quickly be found to be insolvent.

ij

* The mortgages held by WM do not need to be marked to market but can be reserved following traditional methods. Yet, if those same mortgages were held in the form of CDO's, CMO's, or SIV's then they would be marked to market rather than to a model that better approximated traditional reserving. Another example of shallow thinking elevating form over substance.