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	<title>Comments on: A new type of writedown: monolines hit Merrill&#8217;s numbers</title>
	<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/</link>
	<description>FT Alphaville from FT.com</description>
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	<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:11:11 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<ttl>5</ttl>
	<language>en</language>

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		<title>by: pegnu</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10723</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10723</guid>
					<description><![CDATA["I don't play golf with anyone, that's why I tell the truth."

What a classic!]]></description>
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		<title>by: immobilienblasen</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10720</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:33:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10720</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[Moin from Germany,

thanks for the Cramer link!]]></description>
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		<title>by: immobilienblasen</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10719</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:29:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10719</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[Moin from Germany,

thanks for the Cramer link. Is this really him... :-)

The first clip where he makes sense i have been stumbling on within years...]]></description>
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		<title>by: WhenIWereYoung</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10718</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:21:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10718</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[Jim Cramer - lol. Huckster, pure and simple.

Wasnt too concerned when the markets were ramping up to a froth and the fees were pouring in, was he?]]></description>
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		<title>by: Aurangzeb Bozdar</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10717</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:06:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10717</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[Some interesting HR trivia from the release:
'Total number of full time employees 64,200 (2006: 56,200).
Excludes 100 full-time employees on salary continuation severance at the end of 4Q06,  200 at the end of 1Q07, 300 at the end of 2Q07, 400 at the end of 3Q07, and 700 at the end of 4Q07.'
One wonders what this stat might be (both for number of employees and people on salary continuation severance arrangement) at the end of first quarter 2008.]]></description>
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		<title>by: pegnu</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10716</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10716</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[so when the SWF bagho^H^H^H^H^H investors invested were they not informed of possible future writedowns?  I just can't understand why they would invest if they had known and if they didn't know they must be feeling pretty angry at the moment.

Their motivation in investing is  a real mystery to me.  They must be taking some kind of geo-political strategic decision to invest without expecting to make money.]]></description>
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		<title>by: Carlomagno</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10715</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:51:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10715</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[Thx. Scary stuff... IMO further recapitalisations are going to become more difficult: they've pretty much rounded-up all the potential bagho^H^H^H^H^H sory, investor and they'd really be scraping the bottom of the barrel to find more. Any further investments from those who have already chipped in are likely to hit thresholds requiring regulatory clearance - which would complicate a lengthen the process. So my take is that the banks are starting to run out of options and better pray that things do not deteriorate much further. Am I right? (And if we add-in significant losses on commercial real estate...)]]></description>
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		<title>by: CABS</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10714</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:40:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10714</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[The 8K said that they have $32.80 book value after the latest capital injection from Mizuho et al, so not quite toast, but definitiely limping a bit. The CMBX contracts look a lot worse than just 1.3% down though.]]></description>
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		<title>by: Carlomagno</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10713</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:25:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10713</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[Let's assume worst case scenario: the monolines go belly-up, all the CDOs, etc is written off, etc.  (let's leave aside the CMBS for the time being). Without looking at the details in that annex, I make that roughly $25bn in additional writedowns. Where does that leave ML? Still standing or out for the count?]]></description>
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		<title>by: CABS</title>
		<link>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10712</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:19:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/01/17/10257/a-new-type-of-writedown-monolines-hit-merrills-balance-sheet/#comment-10712</guid>
					<description><![CDATA[MER declared exposure of $18bn to the commercial property market via loans and CMBS. The positions were written down by just $230m, a rather unimpressive 1.3% hit in the market which has been described as the next subprime disaster.]]></description>
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