Monday, November 5, 2007

Like Lemmings Off a Cliff....

From Bloomberg (note these two paragraphs are in the same story...)

U.S. stocks pared losses as CNBC reported that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. denied a rumor of a writedown.

.....

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said today it expects banks to suffer $200 billion to $250 billion of combined losses on mortgage portfolios over the next five years and $50 billion next year. Fitch Ratings downgraded Citigroup's debt to AA, with a negative outlook.


I'm not saying that I have any knowledge that Goldman will write anything down. But everybody has written something down over the last month. This reminds me of Countrywide saying its latest results were the low point of the cycle on the same say they announced massive write downs, job cuts, an increasing loan loss reserve and a loss for the quarter. Of course, Countrywide rallied that day......