Word: banking
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...bring some stability to markets, the SEC announced a ban on naked short selling, the aggressive practice of betting on a stock's fall without first borrowing shares. But that did nothing to quell widespread speculation about which struggling financial institution would be the next to disappear. British bank Lloyds was in talks to buy beleaguered U.K. mortgage lender HBOS. Washington Mutual, the U.S.'s largest thrift, put itself up for auction, and Wells Fargo and Citigroup might be interested, according to reports. Morgan Stanley appeared to be on the table too. There were murmurs the investment bank was holding...
...Additional photo credits -- Paulson: AP; AIG Ticker: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg / Landov; Lehman: Getty; Federal Reserve Bank of New York: AP; Foreclosure: AP; AIP sign: Getty; Dow Jones...
...some industry experts say the stand-alone investment-bank model is no longer working. Investment banks made buckets of money for many years by tapping capital markets and leveraging to the hilt. But with credit drying up, financing activities with deposits - like commercial banks do - appears to be a better strategy. Commercial banks like Wachovia also have fairly conservative caps on the amount of leverage they use, which affords them greater flexibility during periods of financial-system stress...
...about the state of financial markets. Mergers and buyouts, he notes, often come in waves. "The first merger tells the market something, and then other companies, to be competitive, try to make a move," he says. First Lehman, then Merrill, then ... But does this mean the stand-alone investment bank is no longer viable? "In the short term, it doesn't seem like it is," Martos-Vila says. "But when confidence is restored in the market and they move to another type of risk, who knows...
...also, at least in the minds of many angry investment bank CEOs, a long time coming. In the months leading up to the current market chaos, the short sellers have been on the prowl. But now the witch hunt has begun. The shorts nailed Lehman and Bear Stearns by betting that their shares would continue to fall. And now they have Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in their sights, sparking speculation that the last two remaining go-it-alone investment banking giants may have to find a deep-pocketed commercial bank to partner up with. "What's happening out there...