I think this deal needs to get done as quickly as possible. It appears the overall market may be setting up for another dramatic drop soon since the economy doesn't seem to be recovering as quickly as hoped and the smoke and mirrors of the Obama administration efforts to date are becoming evident. I found it pathetic to hear within the past week that of the millions of home refinances promoted as likely there have only been 20,000 completed so far. And clearly there haven't been many saved or new jobs from the supposesd stimulus package.

So far, the only ones that have benefited are the banks, brokers, and insurance companies that caused the problem in the first place and even they are starting to look weak lately. In my opinion, there is still a gigantic cover-up of the nature and scope of the problems in the financial markets and there are still no changes in regulations to address the abuses. There should be daily perp walks and claw backs of ill-gotten gains but we all know that ain't gonna happen. The SEC has been clearly shown to be a complete joke and still they do little to address past evils let alone prevent new ones.

And let's not forget that hyped legislation to fix the abuses by banks in the credi card area. How very kind of them to not make it effective until next year! By the time it goes into effect, the banks will have gouged every one of their credit card holders regardless of how good their credit scores or payment records. It's an absolute license to steal!

If this merger fails in the middle of a tanking overall market it could get really ugly indeed.