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Home › Politics

Reader Forum | 09/14/2008 4:45 pm

Reader Forum on The Lehman Brothers Melt-down: UPDATE 9/15, 8:30

All weekend, the titans of the Wall Street brokerage firms have been holed up at the offices of the NY Fed, trying to find a way to save Lehman Brothers from liquidation, as so many black cars clogged the streets of Lower Manhattan that traffic came to a standstill.  Hundreds of bankers and arbitrageurs and brokers were called back to their offices to try to unwind their exposure to Lehman counterparty swaps and other arcane products of the shadow banking system brought on by the boom in derivatives. 

Yet broadcast TV news and even the cable news networks have been virtually silent on these proceedings.  Cutbacks, perhaps?

A dramatic look at the events is provided by the NY Times online, and Fox News was the first of the cable news networks to give updates on the proceedings, by broadcasting a report from outside the Lehman building in mid-town Manhattan, where a street band had gathered to play the theme from the movie, Titanic.

CNBC and Fox News Business have announced that they will suspend their usual weekend infomercial fare by going on-air live at 8 PM EST to cover the crisis.

The Internet has been the only place where continued coverage has been available of this latest event in the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.  Important links can be found at the the website of Nouriel Roubini, the bearish professor from NYU, whose predictions for over three years on the dangers posed by the unwinding of the housing and credit market have made him a virtual oracle, MarketWatch and minute by minute at Dealbreaker and Calculated Risk.

For those of our readers who are interested in discussing these financial proceedings, this forum is provided to you.

UPDATE: We’re continuing this thread as we go through Monday morning, the most extraordinary day in decades on Wall Street.  Apologies to the glitch that closed down commenting on this forum for awhile last night. -Editors

Read more about: Credit Crisis, Financial, Great Depression, Lehman Brothers, Meltdown, News, Reader Forum, Wall Street

131 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Diana T
Well, I’ve already sent Kitty 3 posts as to what she is thinking. I have been following all day with Bloomberg, and I now wonder, as I stated to Kitty, if we are not in a Perfect Storm. I know it is un-precedented, and I wonder if we are not watching a Domino. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5UhVttMXBPU&refer=h… I guess all we can do is stay tuned as they say….
By Diana T on 09/14/2008 5:30 pm
HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame
Diana, Since coming on this site beginning Easter Day…every chance have gotten, including in Liz Peek’s threads, have posted about unregulated derivatives…..they are what is behind the foreclosure debacle, they are the kind of speculation that precipatated the 1929 Crash and Great Depression that the 1932 Glass Stegall Banking Act sought to prevent. Citigroup’s Sandy Weill had a major hand in getting rid of those protections in 1998. I worked for the #1 Wall Street firm and was a registered broker (though only for my own edification, never worked as a broker…but that was my mileu then so wanted the license.) Our CEO was brilliant and said that Glass Stegall should always remain sancrosant. From 2000 to now unregulated derivatives skyrocketed from $9 trillion to $700 trillion when the world economy is $50 trillion. We have a foundation of sand as a result….and the deck of cards could fold now. Greenspan said today that it is the worse in 100 years..and that McCain’s economic policies are horrible for the economy….such as it is thanks to GWB. If your Founding Fathers were alive these evil clowns who gamed the system and will cause to much grief…would be hanging from trees. Not that that will help now. Tomorrow may be Black Monday. We’ll see. Good coverage on Huffington Post. Also am reading ‘Wikinomics” right now. Excellent.
By HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame on 09/14/2008 10:25 pm
Diana T
Suzanne, I’m dreading turning the market report on in the morning. I think it’s hitting the fan, and I hope the voting public doesn’t think that permanent tax cuts will get them out of this. http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/14/news/economy/source_of_the_crisis.fortun…
By Diana T on 09/14/2008 10:56 pm
HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame
Diana, Greenspan said this AM that MCain’s plan is dangerous. But I casually ask strangers in SF when the opportunity presents itself, who do they think/hope will win…and the answers given don’t give me much hope. So many are so ill-informed and apathetic…and easily fooled. “I’m voting for Palin because she equals change.” Do you know that as mayor her entire operation for the city was 53 people and $6M budget? And that’s the bulk of her political background. I managed more major construction projects all over the US than I could count for Fortune 100 firms/universities…..many of them $5-30M budgets and hundreds, even thousands involved per project including contractors, architects, engineers, vendors, staff, clients. Managing 53 people and $6M is a big nothing.
By HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame on 09/14/2008 11:32 pm
Elizabeth Bennett
Yes I would guess that half the people posting on WoWoW are more qualified to serve as Vice President than Sarah Palin. I think the media is finally able to get through the jammed phone systems of Alaska to get stories written about what she is REALLY like. The comparison I like is that Alaska’s population is smaller than San Francisco’s. I also worry that she has her husband sit in on meetings with her. I don’t think that would be allowed in the White House. Clearances are needed and so is need to know. But McCain seems in thrall.
By Elizabeth Bennett on 09/15/2008 4:22 am
HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame
Elizabeth, My thoughts exactly…..re more than half at wOw are more qualified…what a crazy 8 years we’ve all endured.
By HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame on 09/15/2008 5:06 am
Diana T
Susan & Elizabeth, I know that I am better informed than the average bear about foreign policy & affairs, but when I know that my knowledge is more than someone that may be one step away from the Oval Office, it scares the hell out of me. Believe me, you wouldn’t want me in that position, any more than I would want you. And, I know that there is more knowledge between us that that lady will ever have. It’s just not the knowledge that bothers me; it’s that she has no Instinct. And, instinct and your sense of a subject is essential. But, yesterday at my meeting of Nat’l Society of Arts & Letters, I heard of several people who will vote for the McCain ticket. I think deep down it is a combination of fear-of-change-to-new-ideas and suppressed racism.
By Diana T on 09/15/2008 8:11 am
phyllis Doyle Pepe
A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit of government of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not to function? Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts. It is epitomized in a historian’s statement about Phillip II of Spain, the surpassing wooden-head of all sovereigns: “No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence.”
By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 09/15/2008 8:53 am
Diana T
Well, Phyllis, I’m sure you’ve heard the quotation from Albert Einstein. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”
By Diana T on 09/15/2008 9:04 am
Star Lawrence
Al also said, “If the theory does not fit the facts, change the facts.” He was a font of cryptic stuff.
By Star Lawrence on 09/15/2008 11:40 am
HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame
Star, Yes, that must account for his Nobel Prize in physics, and whye he was named Time Magazine’s Man of the 20th Century, for coming up with new theories that explain the universe. Like relativity. Is there anything you aren’t cynical about? Einstein also said, “Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as Gandhi ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” [Amen to that] “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Black Monday reading for you: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ Vote Palin McCain, Star!! The bilk of her ‘expertise’ comes from being mayor of an administration with a total of 53 employees and a $6M budget…..what a joke. I can imagine how much she’d screw up $30M projects I’ve managed that involved thousands of people….let alone our $14 Trillion dollar sinking economy destroyed by the Rethuglican administration to enrich their Halliburton/Exxon pals.
By HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame on 09/15/2008 11:53 am
Patty E
Suzanne, I simply love that word play! Rethuglican!
By Patty E on 09/15/2008 1:32 pm
Diana T
Star, It seems like certain people are playing out this playbook…
By Diana T on 09/15/2008 11:56 am
HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame
Diana—Note that I said today would be Black Monday…and that’s the headline. I’ve been warning about derivatives since 2000. I financial WMD waiting to implode world markets. They are gaming the system for a mass sweep of wealth to the very rich…just as in 1929. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
By HoBo Economy Thanks Bush-McSame on 09/15/2008 11:58 am
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