This week, earnings releases from several investment banks made the industry look like it's playing good cop/bad cop with investors.
The different earnings stories gave the market mixed signals and prompted more speculation about how much longer the credit crisis will go on. Here are some banks in the news recently.
Lehman Brothers
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
Law and order
Two Bear Stearns
Meanwhile, in more positive news, the chairman of Wells Fargo
Baseball analogies gone wild
Everyone's trying to predict exactly where we are in this mess. Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the FDIC, said she thinks the subprime crisis is in the seventh inning. Just a few months ago, Morgan Stanley analysts said we were in the third inning. Then the Morgan Stanley CEO said he thought we were in "the top of the ninth." Wait a minute. What inning is it again?
Unfortunately, this week resolved nothing about the direction of the market or the length of the current crisis. It was interesting though. Maybe next week holds the key to the future. Stay tuned.
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