Financial Musical Chairs

The game goes on… for now

The first round of musical chairs ended earlier this year when Bear Stearns was the one left standing when the music stopped. Poor little BSC ate too much subprime candy, got too fat and slow, and couldn’t make it to a chair fast enough. JP Morgan Chase got to eat what was left of BSC’s candy, and the US taxpayers got to clean up the wrappers.

Apparently the second round ended yesterday, and Lehman was left without a chair. Lehman didn’t eat too much subprime but apparently had quite the sweet tooth for Alt-A. The other kids are going to be forced to clean up the mess that LEH made, but I think it remains to be seen if the US taxpayers will have to do another good scrubbing.

But it seems two other chairs were pulled from the game this time. Lucky Merrill gets to sit on the lap of Bank of America for the time being (though that lap is getting quite crowded with Countrywide and all). And AIG is begging “Big Mama Fed” for one more chance.

Next few days should be very interesting…