Write-downs wash away Wall Street profits

What a difference a year makes.

In the last 12 months, almost half the profits amassed in a three-and-a-half year stretch of unprecedented growth for Wall Street firms have evaporated, The New York Times reported.

From early 2004 to mid-2007, Wall Street giants earned a combined $254 billion in profits, but in the last 12 months those same financial services firms have written down the value of the assets they hold by $107.2 billion, decimating their earnings and share prices.

The investment banks, who fell prey to the subprime-mortgage crisis, that suffered these accumulated losses from hard-to-value assets include Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp., and Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, all of New York.

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