Interesting News

Trading assets can be divided into three levels. From Minyanville, the Level 3 assets (which include real estate, mortgage-backed securities, private equity investments and much more) are the least liquid of the firms' trading assets and therefore are valued using what are called "unobservable inputs." The three magic words that make an asset a Level 3 asset are "no observable inputs." What this means is that not only are they hard to price, but nearly impossible to sell."
Ten companies now have more Level 3 assets than capital. In order they are (as a % of total shareholder equity):
1) Bear Stearns: 313.97% (for example, a bit more than 3x's their equity capital base)
2) Morgan Stanley: 234.88%
3) Merrill Lynch: 225.4%
4) Goldman Sachs: 191.56%
5) Lehman: 171.18%
6) Fannie Mae: 161.48%
7) Northwest Air: 142.02%
8) Citigroup: 125.06%
9) Prudential: 119.36%
10) Hartford: 108.52%