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The Last Days of Lehman Brothers
Economic Policy Journal ^ | 9/14/09 | Robert Wenzel

Posted on 09/14/2009 10:07:09 AM PDT by FromLori

A BBC production of the last days of Lehman Brothers is a must see. You have to read between the lines a bit, but the production shows how Treasury Secretary Paulson treated Lehman different from the way he handled others that had just as many problems as Lehman. In a nice touch, the BBC hints that Paulson tipped off former Goldman man, and then Merrill CEO, John Thain, of the trouble ahead----which was behind Merrill's sale to Bank of America.

The dramatization does a nice job of showing Thain's style in landing an incredible $29 per share for Merrill from Bank of America in the middle of the crisis.

The dramatization is an hour long, but after you see it once, you are going to want to see it again. It gives a real solid inside feel and is very accurate as far as all the public facts. Except for the Geithner character, there is great casting.

The film is here. Note: Ignore the video to the left and click where it says, "Let me watch."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anniversary; bailouts; fraud; lehman; lehmanbrothers; paulson; wallstreet
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1 posted on 09/14/2009 10:07:10 AM PDT by FromLori
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To: FromLori

bump for later watch.


2 posted on 09/14/2009 10:08:34 AM PDT by ken21 (i am not voting for a rino-progressive.)
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To: FromLori

If we were a sane society these jokers would be tarred and feathered.


3 posted on 09/14/2009 10:12:02 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: FromLori

Someone allowed Lehman to be the first while passing over others.

Someone allowed it to happen when it happened, no sooner and no later.

They knew it would have to happen back in March 2008. (See NYT, etc. articles about Fannie/Freddie and subprime assets)

Someone had their eye fixed on Nov 4th.

Someone was feeling anxiety over a sudden reversal in the polls with about a month to election day. A new name/face had captivated the nation and turned an eight point deficit into a 10 point bounce/lead.

A certain candidate had just returned from Europe and folks were listing the trip as one of the Jump the Shark moments in his campaign.

Things were looking grim for the prospects of a new leftist radicalization that looked like a shoe-in only days before.

Until someone made the call.

Lehman became the U.S.’s reichstag. You know the rest.


4 posted on 09/14/2009 10:19:03 AM PDT by epluribus_2
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To: FromLori

No question favorites were being played by the feds.


5 posted on 09/14/2009 10:19:09 AM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: Wolfie
But we are not obviously
6 posted on 09/14/2009 10:21:35 AM PDT by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: ex-Texan; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; Liz; AuntB

P I N G


7 posted on 09/14/2009 10:30:37 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Pray for, and support our troops(heroes) !! And vote out the RINO's!!)
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To: Parley Baer

Im not up on this ...why was Lehnman the one to fail?


8 posted on 09/14/2009 10:37:13 AM PDT by woofie
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To: woofie

Short answer, because Paulson was recruited from Goldman Saks and Lehman was the major competitor for Goldman Saks.


9 posted on 09/14/2009 10:39:33 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Dems, believing they cannot be deceived, it is impossible to convince them when they are deceived.)
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To: FromLori

Bump for later


10 posted on 09/14/2009 11:22:39 AM PDT by Fellow Traveler
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To: Toddsterpatriot

Your thoughts?


11 posted on 09/14/2009 11:26:19 AM PDT by investigateworld (Abortion stops a beating heart)
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To: epluribus_2

I think you are very correct and Lehman became the U.S.’s Reichstag. Someone must be held responsible, Henry Paulson, Soros, GWB, the Congress Whores or whoever else was involved...what to do now???


12 posted on 09/14/2009 11:28:26 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: stephenjohnbanker; M. Espinola; FromLori
The most telling statement in the movie was made by Paulson: 'Somebody has to fail . . .' Right before he went to Congress and asked for $ 800 Billion in bailout money. If true, he ought to be dawn and quartered the old fashioned way. With pikes and four horses in public with people cheering.

But this is only exotic fiction. I knew how it would end. Everybody thought they were making a killing. Some people thought they were rich. Nobody is talking about billions in forged securities being sold to suckers worldwide. Not yet. But some day perhaps people will wake up. Long after the shredders have chewed up all the hard evidence.

13 posted on 09/14/2009 2:22:08 PM PDT by ex-Texan (Ecclesiastes 5:10 - 20)
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To: stephenjohnbanker; maggief; GOPJ; woofie; Grampa Dave; ex-Texan; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; ...

Lehman’s Fuld should be in jail-—Fuld still enjoys a 20-room mansion in Greenwich, Conn. and made some $345 million during the last five years of running Lehman.

Fuld was the brains behind some of these cockamamie finanical instruments-—like credit default swaps—sold all over the USA and the world to unsuspecting buyers who lost a bundle.


ONE EXAMPLE-—LEHMAN’S BANKRUPTCY COST FLORIDA BIG BUCKS

(1) Florida stands to lose $1 billion from Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy.

(2) Lehman Bros managed Fla’s public assets, sold securities, underwrote bond deals and handled residential and commercial MORTGAGES.

(3) Local Fla governments are stuck with about $556 million in tainted securities that they can’t redeem.

(4) More than $440 million disappeared from the Fla pension fund.

(5) Counties, cities and school districts face a loss of more than $300 million for roads, sewers and schools.

(6) Fla has $290 million less to pay for everything from hurricane claims to health care, community colleges and care for infants with disabilities.

(7) The biggest casualty of Lehman is Florida’s giant public pension fund. It took a $230 million hit on Lehman stocks and bonds.

(8) The pension fund holds another $53 million in Lehman bonds that have lost most of their value.

(9) The pension fund has $323 million tied up in tarnished MORTGAGE-RELATED securities purchased from Lehman.

(10) If the Fla pension fund today sold the MORTGAGE-RELATED securities purchased from Lehman, the pension fund would lose about $188 million more.


How much did your state lose? One way to find out: a recent sale of $423M worth of claims on the remaining assets of bankrupt Lehman Bros (now known as Lehman Holdings) were sold by hedge fund Citadel Investment Group to Credit Suisse last week.

Now according to Lehman Holding’s Web site, the bankrupt company has accumulated $6B cash from its derivative contracts…....but it has an estimated $100B in claims.

Did your state make any claims against the bankrupt Lehman Holdings? The dimension of the claims would indicate how much they lost.


14 posted on 09/14/2009 3:16:32 PM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz

“Fuld was the brains behind some of these cockamamie finanical instruments-—like credit default swaps”

” Let’s see.....2 billion CDS....hmmmmm...mean average FICO score 580....hmmmmm......B- .......Yes.... YES B- it is !!(spinning roulette wheel)


15 posted on 09/14/2009 4:55:50 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Pray for, and support our troops(heroes) !! And vote out the RINO's!!)
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To: Liz; stephenjohnbanker; M. Espinola; FromLori; GOPJ; TigerLikesRooster; Travis McGee; All
King Zero dropped a bomb on our freedems today.

He is proposing a final bankster coup d’état over our government. Nobody in the media was watching. Except maybe FOX News:

Video: Judge Andrew Napolitano On Obama Pushing Bankster Takeover

In fact, as Judge Napolitano notes in the video above, if the proposals Obama urged onto to the American people today are implemented -- It will amount to a final coup d’état by the banksters and their technocrats and enforcers at the Federal Reserve, the unconstitutional and privately held bankster cartel operation that masquerades as a government agency.

These 'reforms' would install a dictatorial regulatory power by the international bankers over entire U.S. economy — right down to the local grocer and the hot dog vendor on the corner. It will require you to ask permission for the most mundane and routine of financial transactions. It will control your life down to the smallest detail.

16 posted on 09/15/2009 12:25:48 AM PDT by ex-Texan (Ecclesiastes 5:10 - 20)
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To: ex-Texan; stephenjohnbanker; maggief; hoosiermama; KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle; FromLori; GOPJ; ...
A SHOCKING DISPLAY OF OBAMA'S THIRST FOR POWER

FOX News' Judge Napolitano notes: if implemented, the unconstitutional proposals Obama urged in his speech on Wall Street yesterday will amount to a final coup d’état by banksters, their technocrats and enforcers, at the Federal Reserve (*the privately-held bankster cartel that masquerades as a government agency).

Obama's "reforms" would install a dictatorial regulatory power controlled by international bankers over the entire US economy — down to the local grocer and hot dog vendor on the corner. It will control our lives down to the smallest detail. It will require us to ask permission for the most mundane and routine of financial transactions.

IT MUST BE BE RESISTED AT ALL COSTS.

VIDEO LINK POSTED ABOVE Judge Andrew Napolitano On Obama/Bankster Takeover

===============================================

* EXCERPT http://mises.org/story/1353

The establishment of the Federal Reserve followed lengthy debates and disputes. Central banking was a topic the Congress of 1913 approached gingerly. America had its experiments with early forms of central banks and had repelled them. Interesting to note, too, that the initial charter of the Federal Reserve was good for only twenty years. Permanence was not established until the McFadden Act in 1927. The mistrust of government power still lingered in the air, though its scent was not as strong as it had been in prior generations, it was certainly much thicker than in the climate of warmed over socialism that permeates today's governmental chambers.

Despite this, the Act itself was vague in its purpose as most creations of political compromise tend to be. The essential feature of the Federal Reserve System, though, was its ability to pool the gold reserves of many banks and thereby make it easier for national member banks to issue notes. In simple terms, the Fed would allow banks greater freedom to inflate by giving them greater flexibility in skirting the restraints of the older gold standard.

By Christopher Mayer, commercial lender for Provident Bank in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

17 posted on 09/15/2009 5:32:09 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Marine_Uncle

ping to post #17.


18 posted on 09/15/2009 5:40:18 AM PDT by Liz
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To: epluribus_2; Liz

Does “someone” = Soros? Sanders? Chinese?

Remember (last year) all the talk about short selling and India, Indonesia or another SE Asia being the source? What ever happened to that little gem of knowledge?


19 posted on 09/15/2009 5:48:51 AM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: TADSLOS; raybbr; AuntB; Tennessee Nana; cripplecreek; rabscuttle385; gubamyster; SkyPilot

ping to post #17


20 posted on 09/15/2009 5:55:18 AM PDT by Liz
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