Worthless AAA CDO's Hit National Bank of Australia, 90% Debt Writedowns

Worthless AAA CDO's Hit National Bank of Australia, 90% Debt Writedowns :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website: "Over at Nouriel Roubini's blog, Dr. Doom made this observation about the Merrill Lynch's troubles:

'Merrill Lynch's decision to 'sell' a good chunk of its remaining CDOs at 22 cents to the dollar has been widely praised as the firm finally recognizing the full extent of its losses on these toxic instruments. This batch of $30.6 billion of CDOs was already marked down to $11.1 billion. Now with the 'sale' of it to Lone Star at a price of 6.7 billion Merrill Lynch is taking another $4.4 billion write-down and 'selling' it at 22% of the original face value. But is this a market-based 'sale'? No way, calling this transaction a 'sale' is a joke.' (Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor)

This isn't a 'sale'; it's more like abandoning a sinking ship. The investment chieftains are getting scorched by their downgraded assets and have started dumping them at any cost. There's no market for mortgage-backed anything now, and there won't be until housing finds a bottom. By time that happens, most of the CEOs and CFOs in the mega-brokerage houses will be squatting on streetcorners on the lower East Side with tin-cup in hand. It's that bad."