How deep can it goes?

First, we have seen the US Investment Bank, Lehman Brothers (a 158 year old institution), collapsed. A report said that some 30 per cent of the bank’s equity was held by employees and many bonuses were paid in shares. Now those holdings are all but worthless. Some staff were also told not to expect a paycheck at the end of the month and that they might even be liable for expenses on their corporate credit cards.



Then, Merrill Lynch is up for sale for roughly $50 billion (to Bank of America) to avert a deepening financial crisis.



Once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of hundreds of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.


Another credit crisis loomed as the insurance giant American International Group (IAG) appeared to teeter. AIG sought a $40 billion lifeline from the Federal Reserve, without which the company may have only days to survive. AIG is under pressure to sell off some of its most valuable assets (aircraft leasing, annuities?) in a bid to quickly shore up it's capital.



Even Goldman Sachs was not invulnerable to the ongoing credit crisis as it reported a 70% decline in quarterly profits today.

I will call up the local AIA's Customer Service Officer tomorrow to check whether I should surrender my policy just to stir up the AIG's sentiment a bit... hah hah. So bad huh.