From the Deal Journal (A WJS blog)….

Many of the problems originated at Merrill Lynch, which had a loss of $15 billion in the quarter, or three times worse than the last quarter. “To put [the] $15 bn after-tax [loss] in perspective, 60% of the common equity base of the company was lost in one quarter,” Goldman Sachs research analysts noted wryly in a research report this morning.

Felix Salmon has some questions.

Since Bank of America is bailing out/buying Merrill Lynch, you should also read “WSJ: Bank of America to Receive $20 Billion Injection, Support for $118 Billion of Loans” from Naked Capitalism to get a better idea of the extent of this mess.