Someone on Wall Street has to be listening to a track from Queen’s 1980 album, The Game, right now. Why is that? Well, hum the distinctive bass line if you know it… Dada dum dum dum… another one bites the dust. In this case, ‘another one’ means Wachovia Corporation, who collapsed under the weight of overdue mortgages. The sixth-largest bank in the United States by holdings was bought out by Citibank parent company Citigroup for what amounts to $1 a share. Last week Wachovia shares were trading at $10.
Let’s look at the score card, shall we? First it was Bear Stearns, then Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch, and now Wachovia. JPMorgan Chase, who bought out both Bear Stearns and WaMu, was the biggest big boy on the block, but now it finds itself behind Citigroup, who controls about $1.3 trillion dollars worldwide. Unfortunately, if this crisis has taught us anything, it’s that when the bleeding starts on Wall Street, it’s very hard to stop, even with $700 billion dollars in government green bandages. It’s enough to drive even the most experienced of governors into the arms of expensive call girls.
Is it a full-fledged fire sale? I don’t even know anymore. I just know that when times are bad, people with cash to spare are in a position to make serious profits.
Tags: financial crisis, , Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, Citibank, Citigroup, Wachovia securities, Wall Street, the stock market, buyout, 0 billion bailout
