how does Merrill become a large holder of subprime CDOs

--IT rose from a small player in mortgage CDOs in 2002 with just 3.4 billion in underwritings to the leader from 2004 through 2006, posting $44 bil --It acquired First Franklin, one of the nation's largest originators of subprime mortages in December of 2006 for 1.3 billion. --In the first half of 2007, it underwrote $28 bil of mortage CDOs --Greed is important factor: not satisfied with underiting fees, it used its own captial to bet on the Super-senior tranches AAA, a lot of them are junk bonds now. High yield of CDO put ML in blind