Banking Crisis Quote of the Day; Side-note about Merrill Lynch

From Reuters:

But Lehman soon emerged as Wall Street's next domino as real estate loans and other toxic assets increasingly weighed on its balance sheet, especially after the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos Inc in March.

I really don't have much more to say about this that I haven't already said [Editor's Note: See The Hand that Restacks the Dominoes and The Economy: Now What? to see what Vahl said!].  I'm just glad someone else besides me is using the domino analogy.

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On a side-note, I read that Bank of America may be acquiring Merrill Lynch for $29/share -- a real sweetheart deal.

I think this is a disaster.

You see, I'm attempting to close on a foreclosed home.  The home is owned by Countrywide -- another financial institution recently acquired by Bank of America.

Without getting into crazy technical details ... let's just say we've been trying to close on the home since JUNE.

It is now late September.

Countrywide has displayed an amazing level of incompetence.  Here is a list of examples:

• It took a month before Countrywide realized they had to buy the home back from another bank before selling it to us.
• It took Countrywide two months to sign the new contract, as well as to approve repairs on the home (Repairs that had to be made prior to closing, or else we wouldn't qualify for the loan).
• They listed the wrong mortgage company on the Title.

I have been told that Countrywide is SWAMPED.  Where they once did a few foreclosures a month, they are now processing THOUSANDS and are not fully equipped to handle the influx of work.

If anyone has ever worked in a giant corporation and felt like a cog in the machine ... and seen how decisions are made up top without regard to the reality on the ground ... or if you've seen Office Space or read Dilbert ... you KNOW what kind of cluster***k is going on in the halls of Countrywide; especially considering they now have to answer to their Bank of America masters.

So ... if I were a customer of Merrill Lynch, I would BAIL ... unless you like poor customer service, inefficiency, confusion, frustration, etc.

As far as I'm concerned, if Merrill Lynch and Lehman have to die due to mismanagement, SO BE IT.

Better that than the Night of the Living Dead situation that exists at places like Countrywide ... where the body is being animated clumsily and without grace.