Tuesday, November 11, 2008

"he was cautiously optimistic about the future of the financial services industry": No Havoc Here

Does this guy think he's Jonah? What's with Ha-Navi act? From the FT:

"The global economy is entering a slowdown of epic proportions, comparable to the Great Depression, John Thain, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, warned on Tuesday.

Speaking at the firm’s annual banking and financial services conference, Mr Thain said that while he was cautiously optimistic about the future of the financial services industry, he was not at all optimistic about the near-term prospects of the US economy and global markets."

Good Lord, that's self-serving. Everyone else is in the crapper, but the financial services industry looks peculiarly resilient ( Maybe because of the massive infusion of government largess ). Um, where should smart money go, I wonder?

"Mr Thain also said that the economic problems afflicting the US, where housing prices and other asset values were falling, would wreak havoc across the world.

“There is no such thing as decoupling,” he said, referring to the popular theory that emerging markets could sustain reasonable growth rates even while the world’s leading economies suffered through recessions. “All equity markets are linked. Each individual economy will be more or less affected, depending on reliance on global trade and commerce.”

He's telling everyone to build a teva. It should be made of...I forget. Is there still such a thing as divorce?

"Despite his gloomy take on the economy, Mr Thain expressed cautious optimism about the state of the financial services industry. Referring to the US government’s $700bn bailout package and the direct infusion of $125bn to recapitalise the nation’s biggest banks, Mr Thain said “all of that is starting to take effect and things are starting to get better.”

Thankfully, all you silly taxpayers propped us up while you're consigned to havoc. We can afford arks.

"Still, he added, there remains “a huge amount of dislocation in credit markets. Although things are starting to improve, this is going to be a long process.”

Thankfully, he's saying, it will take quite a while for this to be worked through, so we can make out quite well.

"The combination would also give Merrill Lynch’s vaunted team of wealth management advisers access to BofA’s “huge pool of wealthy individuals”, Mr Thain said."

Forget the little guy. Zero in on the rich.

I wonder if this pool of wealthy investors is like the giant pool of international money that led to the bubble?

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