Another wave of write downs hitting global banks

Today it's Credit Suisse who are preparing to write down a mere $2.2 billion. That's chump change compared to Citigroup. The earlier rumors for Q4 write downs were $8-$11 billion, though more recently the number has increased, just a little bit, to $18.7 billion.

In addition to the newest wave of write downs, news on job cuts on Wall Street should be announced this week. Some initially thought this might all blow over so they maintained the numbers. It's now clear that this storm will be severe enough, so many of the big names are cutting staff.