From Barry over at TBG:47% on the dollar

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Less than five and half cents on the dol­lar? That’s an even cheaper sale than orig­i­nally advertised.

What this trans­ac­tion actu­ally accom­plishes is get­ting the paper — but not the full lia­bil­ity — off of Merrill’s books.

How very Enron-like !

The behav­ior of the I-banks is get­ting bor­ing, tir­ing and sur­pris­ingly pre­dictable, even in this mar­ket con­text. You would sup­pose they would learn some day. Appar­ently, that day hasn’t come yet.
Source: Actual Mer­rill CDO Sale: 5.47% on the Dollar