The First Marblehead Corp (FMD)

equalfuture (79.49) Submitted: 4/17/08 11:05 PM

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After, being almost rescued by goldman sachs I do not beleive this company will be given another chance. Once in a lifetime a company gets a second chance and now that chance is almost totally unavailable. This company was and is in the wrong business.

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orchid5 (< 20) Submitted: 5/23/08 11:54 PM

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As we all know, FMD's stock has been beaten down due to the current credit mess (which, by the way, FMD had nothing to do with). Improvement will not occur until the greedy bankers and financiers responsible for the mess finally confront the ugly and costly consequences of their unethical financial practices of issuing mortgages to under-qualified borrowers while using many people's naivety regarding ARMs to their further enhance their positions. Then gleefully bundled the derivatives created by these ill-bred transactions and sold them to investors through the various channels (BSC ring a bell?) knowing full well the losses which would certainly result from defaults would eventually cause major losses for investors, while the bankers had no risk at all. Anyway, my point is this... a lot of people who took out mortgages for homes they probably couldn't afford are the same folks who are probably still living beyond their means. Many having little or no funds saved for their children's college expenses. Statistics show a frighteningly large percentage of working class Americans who do not have any significant savings or cash reserves, carry massive credit card balances and are up to their necks in debt. But, when it comes time for their kids to start college, the majority of these families will send their kids to school with many finding no other options but to fund college through student loans taken out by the kids. Anyway, as Mr. Buffett has advised when choosing an investment, look at the basic business, the demand or necessity for its product, past profitabilty and if it seems capable of sustaining profitable growth in the coming the years. I try to disregard all the macro-analysis and other garbage coming from the Street and view this from a basic, common sense perspective. I may be wrong, but I don't see Americans changing their current impulsive spending habits, their sense of entitlement or the "keeping up with the Jones" mentality any time soon. People will send their kids to college even if they don't have the means to do so, just as they insist on buying new cars, boats, etc. with no regard to the strain these purchase will place on an already overburdened budget. The "buy it now and worry about paying later" mindset held by so many Americans virtually ensures they will continue to not save enough which practically guarantees a continued demand for FMD's services. The financial irresponsibility so common in today's society makes me a very firm believer that FMD will continue to be an ongoing concern and share prices will rebound significantly once the absurd credit fiasco currently affecting our economy has been corrected. At that time the suits on Wall Street can find some other nonsensical issue to worry about and give the "analysts" and other "expert" talking heads a new topic to endlessly drone about on the numerous financial media outlets. In closing, my humble opinion remains that in time FMD's share price will recover and those investors who chose to accept the risk and patiently continued to invest in this company will be more than amply rewarded.

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