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FEATURE: What lessons from Lehmans?
14 September 2009
The demise of Lehman Brothers prompted the collapse or malfunction of swathes of the global financial sector. Caroline Allen scans the rubble to see who remains wounded, who looks stronger and what lessons have been learned.
Read more:
Lehmans
investment banking
US Treasury
Paulson
Fuld
Thain
Blankfein
Lewis
The collapse of Lehman Brothers marked the end of an era for the global financial industry. In financial markets, September 15, 2008, when Lehman filed for bankruptcy, was a JFK, John Lennon or Princess Diana moment. Where were you when you heard? Who did you talk to first? The analysis as to why and how, and who was to blame, began almost immediately and has gathered momentum.
For the wider world, the collapse of the fourth largest US investment bank (its share price plunged from $82 to less than $4 in a week) was at first treated with some jubilation. Greedy investment bankers had at last got their comeuppance. It was an inter-bank problem, not one involving retail investors, so who cared? Rival political blocs gloated - the Western financial system was not ‘efficient’ after all, and certainly not a model to emulate.
Regulators had a trickier path to steer....
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