Thank you, Henry Paulson. MS was in danger of not existing this time last year. Evidence of the cockroach-like resiliency of bankers.
So what are you arguing for?
I’m not arguing for anything. I just imagined people would be happy since bank earnings are positively correlated with our bonuses and job security.
It’s the trading division that’s making the $$$. They are borrowing/receiving money at close to 0%, not lending it to public, but investing it in assets (stocks, commodities).
former trader Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It’s the trading division that’s making the $$$. > > They are borrowing/receiving money at close to 0%, > not lending it to public, but investing it in > assets (stocks, commodities). Not for Wells Fargo. It really doesn’t have a significant trading division. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wells-Fargo-3Q-profit-rises-apf-3211960031.html?x=0&.v=8 “The market has been uneasy about banks’ rising loan losses since reports last week from Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. that provided further evidence that businesses and consumers are still struggling to pay off their debts. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase said their results were supported by their trading businesses. Wells Fargo has a relatively small trading operation.” Actually, WFC is boosted by taking a big bath in loan loss reserves in 2008.
Plus WFC is clearly smoothing their earnings. If you pull up WFC Equity ERN , you’ll see some remarkably consistent numbers since 2007, with the exception of Q4 2008 (for obvious reasons). The market seems to believe this too - WFC is down today despite *doubling* earnings estimates. The same happened last quarter. What other stock does this?