As leveraged assets go down in value, the leverage multiples go up. Adding to that multiple is the falling dollar and the fact that these assets are in reality debt deposits, not cash deposits, that were passed on in different forms to be leveraged over and over.
With more bad news on the horizon for financial institutions -- $871 billion worth of bonds set to mature through 2009 --Toddo notes Bennet Sedacca classifies banks with two simple designations:
Good banks, such as Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan (JPM) and Barclays (BCS).
Then there are bad banks, like Wachovia (WB), Washington Mutual (WM) and Zions Bancorp (ZION).
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