On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holding Inc, the “too big to fail” fourth-largest investment bank in the United States, with 25,000 employees, $639 billion in assets and $613 billion in liabilities, filed for bankruptcy, triggering a global financial crisis.
The US government allowed the iconic investment bank to fail but bailed out AIG, even though both were involved in subprime mortgage financing. Incidentally, AIG’s $182-billion bailout happened in the same week that witnessed the Lehman collapse.
A week before that, the government took over two troubled mortgage guarantee firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This, six months after it
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper