Getting your player ready...
NEW YORK — Even after the record $8.4 billion write- down for bad debts at Merrill Lynch & Co., the unprecedented ouster of three chief executives within five months and the elimination of $84 billion of market value at the five largest securities firms, Wall Street still is poised to report its second-most profitable year.
And 2008 may be better.
The collapse of the subprime-mortgage market derailed the careers of Merrill CEO Stan O’Neal, Citigroup’s Charles “Chuck” Prince and UBS AG’s Peter Wuffli.
Together, those companies accounted for about 60 percent of the $45 billion of write- downs reported by the world’s biggest banks and securities firms so far this year. The industry already has cut 10,000 jobs.
