[ucodegen]

I am presently running the investments on my Mothers 403b’s money. The people that the Teacher’s Union had running it were really pretty bad. Beyond that, I don’t have to, nor will have to support her. She has the Teacher’s pension which is quite nice as well as almost full coverage for medical as part of her retirement (Blue Shield). Other than 2 hospitalizations, she is pretty healthy (I am trying to get her to be more physically active though). She is past median lifespan.

My father passed away a few years years back, and he was about 10 years past median lifespan. Initial thoughts were that he was going to outlive my Mother because he hiked regularly (and was as stubborn as hell). Unfortunately he decided to do ‘holistic’ tooth care instead of proper care. The result was gingivitis progressing to tooth loss. The bacteria ended up getting into his bloodstream and attacking the heart, resulting in CHF (Congestive Heart Failure). In his case, one side was more damaged than the other as well as increased turbulence within the heart (increased stroke risk). The result is that you need to take drugs to make one side beat stronger (to compensate for the CHF) as well as a blood thinner. Only one big problem was that he was inconsistent in taking the blood thinner. At that time I didn’t know much about the drugs involved, otherwise I would have pushed him to take Aspirin instead of Warfarin/Coumadin. Aspirin is more predictable and has a longer life (almost 11 days compared to about 3 for Warfarin) within the body. If you miss a dose of Aspirin, just take it the next day.. with Warfarin, you have to be much more careful. Suffice it to say, he missed doses of Warfarin, resulting in more than one stroke. The last one did significant damage. He had to be placed in a Nursing home (was careful about which one, because some of them are pretty bad). He still had enough presence of mind to know what was happening and what had happened to his mind from the stroke. He did not want to continue, so about 1 year after the last stroke, he starved himself to death. He had sufficient funds to continue the Nursing home for more than 10 years.

We didn’t order forced feeding because he didn’t wish it. It was something we discussed as a family a long time ago. My family likes to ‘go out’ with our boots on. We don’t like to having last memory of ourselves as being a barely conscious blob of protoplasm for our loved ones. When it is time to go, it is time to go!. We see continuing under a terminal, painful condition.. as torture. Living like that, is not living.

Sorry if the Father part is TMI (Too Much Info). I do want to emphasize that people pay attention to their health care, and not always doing exactly what a doctor requests without asking questions. It is your body, your health, your life – be involved. Dental care is surprisingly important. The bacteria that attack your teeth will attack your heart if it gets into the bloodstream. Also be aware of alternate drugs to what is normally prescribed. Sometimes an alternate is better, sometimes a generic or off patent drug will do just as well or better… and it won’t leave as much of a financial dent.

[ucodegen]

I am presently running the investments on my Mothers 403b’s money. The people that the Teacher’s Union had running it were really pretty bad. Beyond that, I don’t have to, nor will have to support her. She has the Teacher’s pension which is quite nice as well as almost full coverage for medical as part of her retirement (Blue Shield). Other than 2 hospitalizations, she is pretty healthy (I am trying to get her to be more physically active though). She is past median lifespan.

My father passed away a few years years back, and he was about 10 years past median lifespan. Initial thoughts were that he was going to outlive my Mother because he hiked regularly (and was as stubborn as hell). Unfortunately he decided to do ‘holistic’ tooth care instead of proper care. The result was gingivitis progressing to tooth loss. The bacteria ended up getting into his bloodstream and attacking the heart, resulting in CHF (Congestive Heart Failure). In his case, one side was more damaged than the other as well as increased turbulence within the heart (increased stroke risk). The result is that you need to take drugs to make one side beat stronger (to compensate for the CHF) as well as a blood thinner. Only one big problem was that he was inconsistent in taking the blood thinner. At that time I didn’t know much about the drugs involved, otherwise I would have pushed him to take Aspirin instead of Warfarin/Coumadin. Aspirin is more predictable and has a longer life (almost 11 days compared to about 3 for Warfarin) within the body. If you miss a dose of Aspirin, just take it the next day.. with Warfarin, you have to be much more careful. Suffice it to say, he missed doses of Warfarin, resulting in more than one stroke. The last one did significant damage. He had to be placed in a Nursing home (was careful about which one, because some of them are pretty bad). He still had enough presence of mind to know what was happening and what had happened to his mind from the stroke. He did not want to continue, so about 1 year after the last stroke, he starved himself to death. He had sufficient funds to continue the Nursing home for more than 10 years.

We didn’t order forced feeding because he didn’t wish it. It was something we discussed as a family a long time ago. My family likes to ‘go out’ with our boots on. We don’t like to having last memory of ourselves as being a barely conscious blob of protoplasm for our loved ones. When it is time to go, it is time to go!. We see continuing under a terminal, painful condition.. as torture. Living like that, is not living.

Sorry if the Father part is TMI (Too Much Info). I do want to emphasize that people pay attention to their health care, and not always doing exactly what a doctor requests without asking questions. It is your body, your health, your life – be involved. Dental care is surprisingly important. The bacteria that attack your teeth will attack your heart if it gets into the bloodstream. Also be aware of alternate drugs to what is normally prescribed. Sometimes an alternate is better, sometimes a generic or off patent drug will do just as well or better… and it won’t leave as much of a financial dent.

[ucodegen]

I am presently running the investments on my Mothers 403b’s money. The people that the Teacher’s Union had running it were really pretty bad. Beyond that, I don’t have to, nor will have to support her. She has the Teacher’s pension which is quite nice as well as almost full coverage for medical as part of her retirement (Blue Shield). Other than 2 hospitalizations, she is pretty healthy (I am trying to get her to be more physically active though). She is past median lifespan.

My father passed away a few years years back, and he was about 10 years past median lifespan. Initial thoughts were that he was going to outlive my Mother because he hiked regularly (and was as stubborn as hell). Unfortunately he decided to do ‘holistic’ tooth care instead of proper care. The result was gingivitis progressing to tooth loss. The bacteria ended up getting into his bloodstream and attacking the heart, resulting in CHF (Congestive Heart Failure). In his case, one side was more damaged than the other as well as increased turbulence within the heart (increased stroke risk). The result is that you need to take drugs to make one side beat stronger (to compensate for the CHF) as well as a blood thinner. Only one big problem was that he was inconsistent in taking the blood thinner. At that time I didn’t know much about the drugs involved, otherwise I would have pushed him to take Aspirin instead of Warfarin/Coumadin. Aspirin is more predictable and has a longer life (almost 11 days compared to about 3 for Warfarin) within the body. If you miss a dose of Aspirin, just take it the next day.. with Warfarin, you have to be much more careful. Suffice it to say, he missed doses of Warfarin, resulting in more than one stroke. The last one did significant damage. He had to be placed in a Nursing home (was careful about which one, because some of them are pretty bad). He still had enough presence of mind to know what was happening and what had happened to his mind from the stroke. He did not want to continue, so about 1 year after the last stroke, he starved himself to death. He had sufficient funds to continue the Nursing home for more than 10 years.

We didn’t order forced feeding because he didn’t wish it. It was something we discussed as a family a long time ago. My family likes to ‘go out’ with our boots on. We don’t like to having last memory of ourselves as being a barely conscious blob of protoplasm for our loved ones. When it is time to go, it is time to go!. We see continuing under a terminal, painful condition.. as torture. Living like that, is not living.

Sorry if the Father part is TMI (Too Much Info). I do want to emphasize that people pay attention to their health care, and not always doing exactly what a doctor requests without asking questions. It is your body, your health, your life – be involved. Dental care is surprisingly important. The bacteria that attack your teeth will attack your heart if it gets into the bloodstream. Also be aware of alternate drugs to what is normally prescribed. Sometimes an alternate is better, sometimes a generic or off patent drug will do just as well or better… and it won’t leave as much of a financial dent.

[ucodegen]

The market is efficient in the long term, but inefficient in the short term. In times of great uncertainty, the market value of an investment will be much different than the actual value of the investment.

Bonds and MBS(s) were being severely undervalued because no-one knew where the toxic waste was and just how toxic it was. Countrywide didn’t have the most toxic junk. Wachovia does. They continued funding these until the last second.. Washington Mutual was not too far behind.

[ucodegen]

The market is efficient in the long term, but inefficient in the short term. In times of great uncertainty, the market value of an investment will be much different than the actual value of the investment.

Bonds and MBS(s) were being severely undervalued because no-one knew where the toxic waste was and just how toxic it was. Countrywide didn’t have the most toxic junk. Wachovia does. They continued funding these until the last second.. Washington Mutual was not too far behind.

[ucodegen]

The market is efficient in the long term, but inefficient in the short term. In times of great uncertainty, the market value of an investment will be much different than the actual value of the investment.

Bonds and MBS(s) were being severely undervalued because no-one knew where the toxic waste was and just how toxic it was. Countrywide didn’t have the most toxic junk. Wachovia does. They continued funding these until the last second.. Washington Mutual was not too far behind.

[ucodegen]

The market is efficient in the long term, but inefficient in the short term. In times of great uncertainty, the market value of an investment will be much different than the actual value of the investment.

Bonds and MBS(s) were being severely undervalued because no-one knew where the toxic waste was and just how toxic it was. Countrywide didn’t have the most toxic junk. Wachovia does. They continued funding these until the last second.. Washington Mutual was not too far behind.

[ucodegen]

The market is efficient in the long term, but inefficient in the short term. In times of great uncertainty, the market value of an investment will be much different than the actual value of the investment.

Bonds and MBS(s) were being severely undervalued because no-one knew where the toxic waste was and just how toxic it was. Countrywide didn’t have the most toxic junk. Wachovia does. They continued funding these until the last second.. Washington Mutual was not too far behind.

[ucodegen]

Countrywide – even with the servicing business – had negative value.

Incorrect, use DCF and you’ll see it. Also remember that BofA paid the like of $0.02 for $1.00 worth of SFR mortgages.. so guess how low the foreclosure price of the property could go before BofA really loses money? A discount of 50% on the price of the property will not bother BofA that much, since their price that they paid was an 80% discount.

As far as MAC clauses are concerned, if you do proper due diligence in the first place – which wasn’t done in either case – then the MAC clause is irrelevant.

This is also incorrect. You are not necessarily allowed to see and audit the books of a company before you start acquisition. It is considered proprietary and inside info. There is a phase during acquisition that an independent auditor goes through the books after declaring the intent to acquire… a relative of mine used to do that type of auditing until about 4 years ago.

[ucodegen]

Countrywide – even with the servicing business – had negative value.

Incorrect, use DCF and you’ll see it. Also remember that BofA paid the like of $0.02 for $1.00 worth of SFR mortgages.. so guess how low the foreclosure price of the property could go before BofA really loses money? A discount of 50% on the price of the property will not bother BofA that much, since their price that they paid was an 80% discount.

As far as MAC clauses are concerned, if you do proper due diligence in the first place – which wasn’t done in either case – then the MAC clause is irrelevant.

This is also incorrect. You are not necessarily allowed to see and audit the books of a company before you start acquisition. It is considered proprietary and inside info. There is a phase during acquisition that an independent auditor goes through the books after declaring the intent to acquire… a relative of mine used to do that type of auditing until about 4 years ago.

[ucodegen]

Countrywide – even with the servicing business – had negative value.

Incorrect, use DCF and you’ll see it. Also remember that BofA paid the like of $0.02 for $1.00 worth of SFR mortgages.. so guess how low the foreclosure price of the property could go before BofA really loses money? A discount of 50% on the price of the property will not bother BofA that much, since their price that they paid was an 80% discount.

As far as MAC clauses are concerned, if you do proper due diligence in the first place – which wasn’t done in either case – then the MAC clause is irrelevant.

This is also incorrect. You are not necessarily allowed to see and audit the books of a company before you start acquisition. It is considered proprietary and inside info. There is a phase during acquisition that an independent auditor goes through the books after declaring the intent to acquire… a relative of mine used to do that type of auditing until about 4 years ago.

[ucodegen]

Countrywide – even with the servicing business – had negative value.

Incorrect, use DCF and you’ll see it. Also remember that BofA paid the like of $0.02 for $1.00 worth of SFR mortgages.. so guess how low the foreclosure price of the property could go before BofA really loses money? A discount of 50% on the price of the property will not bother BofA that much, since their price that they paid was an 80% discount.

As far as MAC clauses are concerned, if you do proper due diligence in the first place – which wasn’t done in either case – then the MAC clause is irrelevant.

This is also incorrect. You are not necessarily allowed to see and audit the books of a company before you start acquisition. It is considered proprietary and inside info. There is a phase during acquisition that an independent auditor goes through the books after declaring the intent to acquire… a relative of mine used to do that type of auditing until about 4 years ago.

[ucodegen]

Countrywide – even with the servicing business – had negative value.

Incorrect, use DCF and you’ll see it. Also remember that BofA paid the like of $0.02 for $1.00 worth of SFR mortgages.. so guess how low the foreclosure price of the property could go before BofA really loses money? A discount of 50% on the price of the property will not bother BofA that much, since their price that they paid was an 80% discount.

As far as MAC clauses are concerned, if you do proper due diligence in the first place – which wasn’t done in either case – then the MAC clause is irrelevant.

This is also incorrect. You are not necessarily allowed to see and audit the books of a company before you start acquisition. It is considered proprietary and inside info. There is a phase during acquisition that an independent auditor goes through the books after declaring the intent to acquire… a relative of mine used to do that type of auditing until about 4 years ago.

[ucodegen]

Ken Lewis CREATED HIS OWN bad situation(s). He didn’t have to even approach Merrill. Owning Merrill was completely unnecessary from a strategic standpoint.

If it was a bargain, it would have been useful. Merrill was initially looking like a bargain until one looks beyond/behind the 10K/Q. On an acquisition, one does not get to see behind the 10K/Q until the acquisition is started. This is why the material clause is in place when doing an acquisition.

He didn’t have to buy Countrywide. Everyone on this board had an inkling that Countrywide was an abortion before Ken Lewis decided to buy it.

But that ‘abortion’ has an interesting side note. If BofA bought it somewhere at 2 cents on the dollar and its true value is 10 cents on a dollar, he bought it cheap. In addition, he gets to write off losses that have not yet occurred, but that caused the sale price to be discounted against any real income that is generated by either unit(paper losses to real tax benefits). BofA was interested in Countrywide for the loan servicing business, which is currently generating income. Most of Countrywide’s loans were securitized 2 years before the BofA purchase (2 years is the period at which they can be forced back to the originator – forced buyback).

My real concern with BofA is in its Commercial Real Estate loan portfolio..

[ucodegen]

Ken Lewis CREATED HIS OWN bad situation(s). He didn’t have to even approach Merrill. Owning Merrill was completely unnecessary from a strategic standpoint.

If it was a bargain, it would have been useful. Merrill was initially looking like a bargain until one looks beyond/behind the 10K/Q. On an acquisition, one does not get to see behind the 10K/Q until the acquisition is started. This is why the material clause is in place when doing an acquisition.

He didn’t have to buy Countrywide. Everyone on this board had an inkling that Countrywide was an abortion before Ken Lewis decided to buy it.

But that ‘abortion’ has an interesting side note. If BofA bought it somewhere at 2 cents on the dollar and its true value is 10 cents on a dollar, he bought it cheap. In addition, he gets to write off losses that have not yet occurred, but that caused the sale price to be discounted against any real income that is generated by either unit(paper losses to real tax benefits). BofA was interested in Countrywide for the loan servicing business, which is currently generating income. Most of Countrywide’s loans were securitized 2 years before the BofA purchase (2 years is the period at which they can be forced back to the originator – forced buyback).

My real concern with BofA is in its Commercial Real Estate loan portfolio..

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