While opinions about which way the stock market is headed are a dime a dozen, I have to admit that my interest was piqued when I clicked on the link to the following press release (it was forward to me by a reader of the Financial Armageddon blog):
"Charles Merrill Fears Market Crash"
PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Fearing a stock market crash worse than 1929, Charles Merrill (http://www.merrillcharles.com) of Palm Springs, cousin to the founder of the Merrill/Lynch dynasty, is quickly converting to gold coins.
"Merrill Lynch is crashing, due to the ineptness of the CEO. No matter who is running Merrill Lynch & Co., it's going to need a regimen of restraint and recuperation after getting badly bruised by the global credit market shakeout. I predict a house of dominos, and the whole stock market is going to crash," stated Merrill.The world's largest brokerage took a $7.9 billion writedown for subprime mortgages and asset-backed bonds whose values went sour. Many on Wall Street believe there's more where that came from - maybe another $4 billion - and Merrill Lynch's leadership will need to reduce risk and rebuild morale among its ranks.
Merrill stated in a Palm Springs interview with Michael L. Grace (http://www.michaellgrace.com), "There is going to be a major stock market crash, so protect your assets. Buy physical gold and hide it."
Whether Merrill Lynch will crash or not is directly tied to the succeeding CEO's cognitive capacity.
To read more: http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/merrill-lynch-buy-or-sell-depends-on-the-successors-cognitive-capacity
Michelle Malay Carter
Posted by: Michelle Malay Carter | November 01, 2007 at 08:44 PM
I am in partial agreement with Merrill. The market can "crash" by doing nothing in dollars and having gold rise. As things stand today, the Dow is at 17 ounces of gold. If gold goes to say $4,000, the Dow will fall to 3.5 ounces of gold, a roughly 75% decrease. This is what I expect: a roughly stable Dow in dollars while gold rises.
Posted by: George Weinbaum | November 01, 2007 at 10:17 PM
I am anything but bullish right now, but I don't see what authority Charles Merrill carries other than his family name.
Posted by: Economic Crisis | November 03, 2007 at 08:38 PM
A CEO's cognitive capacity? How do you rate O'Neal? What about brand loyalty through a familiar element, like, family, same school, same club, same synagog, fraternity, ect. I know most heirs to corporations are like Robert Wood Johnson IV (J&J), jerks, but at least they would not try to sell the company in private.
When one rises from being the grandson of a slave in Alabama, is there still resentment in his mind against the white establishment when they "Rise, Rise, Rise"? Did O'Neal give a shit about Charlie Merrill and his role in shaping the present stock market. Probably not.
Posted by: Charles Merrill | November 07, 2007 at 10:38 AM