accounting

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went bust, a number of major players were stung as the value of Fannie and Freddie preferred shares plummeted. Principal amongst these players was Gateway Bank, which had a huge percentage of bank capital…

The interesting thing about the Paulson proposal is that it gives the U.S. Treasury carte blanche to buy any of these toxic assets at any price it chooses. This is relevant because of mark to market rules in FAS 157. I have posted a few…

The U.S. and the UK are not the only countries suffering from a housing bust and a credit crisis. Ireland and Spain have had massive busts as well and it is only a matter of time before we begin to see effects on the banking sector. And…

Below are the latest major credit crisis stories from the web that I have seen. Most of these stories have more to do with raising capital, merging, and bankruptcy than writedowns. Quite honestly, I have been caught up in the bailouts so I…

Apparently Lehman not only failed, it left a gaping hole its accounts. The UK pension scheme is missing £100 million. UK regulators certainly need o investigate whether the shortfalls are the result of criminal activity.However, pensions…

Why did Lehman really fail? The equity window is effectively closed for most financial services companies. This fact was the true trigger for the meltdown in AIG and Lehman and the problems at WaMu, HBOS and Merrill Lynch. Moreover, it…

Update: 810 PM EDT: Rush Is On to Prevent A.I.G. From Failing Update: 1045 PM EDT: A.I.G. Seeks $40 Billion in Fed Aid to Survive Update: 810 AM EDT: See my post on what to expect this morning in the market and my (cursory) analysis of the…

Update: 800PM EDT: DealBook is now reporting that Lehman is expected to file bankruptcy as soon as tonight. (See post). Merrill, fearing for its continued existence, is now in takeover talks with BofA (see…

Seven years ago, I was involved in a merger that was the last proposed under the old pooling of interests accounting rule that was phased out after June 30, 2001. This methodology was great because it didn't necessitate acquiring companies…

Below are the latest writedown stories from the web that I have seen. Quite honestly, I have been a little behind in updating all of the stories on the timeline, so please call me out on anything important I failed to add.For the full…