How America Is Sold Out Piece By Piece

On July 29th, Bloomberg ran with this: Merrill Sells $8.55 Billion of Stock, Unloads CDOs

Temasek Holdings Pte., the Singapore-owned fund that became Merrill's biggest investor by acquiring shares in December, agreed to buy $3.4 billion of the new stock, Merrill said yesterday in the statement.
. . .
Thain raised $6.2 billion in December -- when Temasek bought its initial 9.4 percent stake -- and an additional $6.6 billion in January.

So we have to ask, what do folks like Temasek actually get for their money? A good place to start is what Merrill Lynch owns.

I don't expect you to scroll through all 51 pages of their portfolio linked below, but taking a look at just the first page gives you the idea!

You should also note the sector allocation table and the portfolio summary.
For example, MER has more than double the exposure in financials than any other single group, plus its portfolio lost $23.3 Billion in value JUST in the first quarter of 2008.
WOW! Anyway, there's quite a bit more information in these tables that show the hits these companies are taking these days.
(Merrill Lynch & Co.)

And that's just ONE of "our" major investment banks. Here's a link for Citigroup's portfolio, and it's just 39 pages:
(Citigroup)

JP Morgan Chase & Co. is 31 pages.
(JP Morgan Chase & Co)

Lehman Brothers Holdings is 30 pages.
(Lehman Brothers)

You get the idea, right!?
Then perhaps what little information is given out by the MSM (MainStreamMedia) will mean more to you.

Every time there is an large foreign investment made into an "American" investment bank, a chunk of America comes under their control and profits leave our shores.
With Barclays (London) and AXA (Paris) already controlling large chunks, things are simply getting worse.
Nibbling at a cookie enough times eventually devours the whole cookie.

This is why: Sometimes ONLY The Dragon Wins

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© 2008 by Edward Ulysses Cate
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