The Mess On Wall Street: Four Trillion Dollars Down The Drain
The Mess On Wall Street: Four Trillion Dollars Down The Drain by Erick Schonfeld on September 16, 2008
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Each box in the graphic is proportional to the size of the market capitalization of the biggest financial firms then and now. As you mouse over the squares, you can see how much each value each company lost between October 9, 2007 and September 12, 2008. Here are some of the individual losses by market cap:
Citigroup: $236.7 billion to $97.8 billion.
Bank of America: $236.5 billion to $150.2 billion.
AIG: $179.8 billion to $32.3 billion
Goldman Sachs: $97.7 billion to $61.3 billion
American Express: $74.8 billion to $45 billion.
Morgan Stanley: $73.1 billion to $41.1 billion.
Fannie Mae: $64.8 billion to $700 million.
Merrill Lynch: $63.9 billion to $24.2 billion
Freddie Mac: $41.5 billion to $300 million.
Lehman Brothers: $34.4 billion to $2.5 billion.
Washington Mutual: $31.1 billion to $2.9 billion
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Ouch! Never mind these companies’ “market capitalization”!! What we are seeing is the pensions and retirements of some folks going up in smoke. Never to return. Some one (all of us) is taking these losses.
Argh!
And, politician talk about the various “lipstick” issues!
Where are the two fellows now? We need smaller gooferment, now! Do they think that “tax receipts” (i.e., the money they steal from us) is going to increase to pay for all their new programs? Or that there will be any “rich” left to steal from? Unemployment insurance, Social Security Ponzi benefits, Gooferment pensions.
Watch the screwing we will all take!
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