Friday, September 14, 2018

Lehman, Ten Years Later

Ten years ago this weekend, the U.S. government allowed a major global investment bank, Lehman Brothers, to file for bankruptcy. It remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, with Lehman holding over $600 billion in debts.

By that point, Lehman had already announced an expected $3.9 billion loss in its third quarter, as well as a near $5.6 billion loss in write-downs of so-called "toxic" assets. In the first week of September, Lehman's stock dropped drastically, losing more than three quarters of its value. The Fed had already helped salvage Bear Stearns, but there was to be no bailout for Lehman.

The American economy was already technically in recession at that point, but the Lehman bankruptcy seemed to trigger an entire meltdown of the U.S. financial system.  By the time it was over with, an estimated 6 million jobs were lost, unemployment reached 10 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped an astounding 5,000 points. Let's hope we never see the likes of that again.

No comments:

Post a Comment