Professor Offers Perspective Amid Banking 'Bailout'

At of the end of August 2008 the world's biggest banks and security firms had taken write-downs or written off $506.1 billion (net of hedges and offsets) in sub-prime mortgage related assets. The top three U.S. firms, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia Bank, have written off $129.6 billion. Many large U.S. firms have been seriously impacted: the equity value of Wachovia Bank is down 52 percent this year, Washington Mutual is down 73 percent, Citigroup is down 29 percent and Lehman Brothers is down to nothing. Virtually all of the money center and large regional banks have been negatively impacted.