Half-a-room

NEW YORK As various financial disasters collided Monday with Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch being sold to Bank of America, and a major insurance company on the rocks, newspaper Web sites took hold of the story with both expanded coverage and a mix of reader-friendly informational aides.


Blogs are playing a major role in the coverage as the minute-by-minute changes are monitored online at top dailies. But while some are offering comforting guidance, others are ringing the alarm bell.

“Anyone who isn't scared by what happened on Wall Street over the weekend is truly clueless or on some very heavy duty drugs,” Frank James of the Chicago Tribune wrote this morning on the paper’s popular D.C. site, The Swamp. “The developments are just astounding. The rivets holding together the nation's financial system appear to be popping out all over the place.

“Lehman Brothers is headed to bankruptcy court. Merrill Lynch is about to disappear as a free-standing entity, rescued through an acquisition by Bank of America,” he adds. “AIG, the nation's largest insurance company, is asking the feds for a $40 billion bridge loan as it attempts to restructure. There is no putting lipstick on this pig. Or bull. The financial system is in meltdown.”

Floyd Norris, blogging at The New York Times, began early with updates and opinions on the fallout, noting at 10:10 a.m.: “It may sound foolish to see an encouraging sign in the fact financial stocks are only down about 3.5 percent so far today. But it is encouraging.
“The decline in the S&P. financial index is not close to approaching the lows hit in July, while the S.&P. 500 is approaching those levels.”

Eric Dash at The New York Times, goes back five days to lay some groundwork for what he calls: “A crisis of confidence in financial markets on Wall Street [that] culminated in a weekend of brinksmanship and failed appeals that caused the demise of some of the nation’s most storied financial institutions.”

Brett Arends of The Wall Street Journal, opines online that it is a “Triple OhmyGad” day for the markets, adding, “Say it now. Get it out of your system. Roll up the office window and shout if it will help. ‘Ohmygad-ohmygad-ohmygad!’"

But, seeking calm, he goes on to point out: “… the reality is that the banking sector is not America. Wall Street is not America. Things may turn down for a while and times may get tougher. But life, work and the economy will go on -- even without Lehman Brothers. And this is not so new after all.”

Nuts and bolts answers and facts are also being put forth, with the Los Angeles Times’ Money & Co. blogger Tom Petruno offering an online Q&A, which states facts and figures on the Merrill Lynch deal, including: “For BofA shareholders, they can only hope this marriage is happier than the bank’s purchase of discount brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. in 1983. That ended in divorce in 1987, when BofA sold the business back to the firm’s founder.”

Nancy Trejos of The Washington Post, also offered a detailed factoid with Q&A style, explaining, “The turmoil sweeping through the financial markets has left many people worried about their own stocks, bank accounts, and retirement funds. The tottering of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the weakening cash position of AIG, and the purchase of Merrill Lynch -- all taking shape over the weekend -- are forcing average investors and homeowners to ask serious questions about what steps to take now.”

The Post’s Pulitzer Prize winning business columnist Steve Pearlstein is also set to do a live online chat with readers at noon.

David Gaffen of The Wall Street Journal takes a big picture approach to an online guide, titled: “What to Look for As The Day Wears On.”

“Throughout the trading day, the question is going to be whether this will serve as the massive sell-off before a recovery in shares.” He tells readers to look for: Massive volume, Put option demand, and rising volatility.

원본 링크 - http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003849884

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