RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Merrill Lynch says it lost $8.6 billion in 2007. It's the largest loss in the company's history. The loss is due to the brokerage giant's decision to lower the value of its mortgage investments by more than $14 billion. And that's just for the fourth quarter. In the previous quarter, Merrill wrote down nearly $8 billion in bad mortgage investments. Merrill's chief executive called his company's performance, quote, "clearly unacceptable." The new numbers came after Citigroup and JP Morgan also announced billions of dollars in losses stemming from the mortgage crisis.