How Lehman Fell.

[Elliot Kane]

Just found this rather fascinating article from someone who worked there about why he thinks Lehman Brothers got wiped out by the financial crisis.

Some of you may find it interesting.

Why Lehman Brothers collapsed?

[Lews]

Very interesting article. I didn't really know too much about them, but that is very interesting.

[The Sonar Chicken]

Hmmm... reminds a little about Enron, which I did a case study on. Again, there were few or no "checks and balances" and answering more to the shareholders than to a set of ethics/rules/etc. usually creates an excuse to cook the books or to go on a wild ride. The temptation is there and I think many wouldn't be able to resist it or would be sucked into it.

I don't think the SEC's responsibilities cover banks but I think it's time they need a similar "guardian" that actually does what it's supposed to. Not that the SEC is the best since some have even complained that it was "it was SEC sponsorship of Moody's, Fitch, and the S&P that made them the useless parrots they are today".

From seekingalpha.com/article/95583-moody-s-fitch-s-p-sec-are-all-useless

garyweiss.blogspot.com/2008/06/sec-makes-it-unanimous-its-useless.html

[Lews]

My best friend's dad was a partner at Enron's main accounting firm >.< Just from her experience, lawsuits are not fun.

I think many CEO's and executives in companies that aren't doing as well look around at their friends, they see the new cars and the huge houses, and they think to themselves why isn't that me? How can I get that. An easy answer: inflate the books. Report more profits then you are receiving; the stock price goes up and you look good.

People hope that the prices will just keep climbing - and eventually they will actually be making that much money, so they're not really lying about the money just about when they made that much money. It's a free ride to success and a Bentley.

Yeah the SEC ain't that great. Turns out that someone wrote a letter to the SEC 8 years ago saying that Madroff was running a Ponzi Scheme. 8 years later it's good to know that up to $50 billion has been lost by this incompetent fool.

I don't know. I have an easy time with the stock market. Probably one of the only things I actually know a lot about: Money, Politics, War. Good stuff to make you rich, not so good to make you interesting. Oh well. But since I have such an easy time I can't really see how these fund managers do so badly. My mom and I are having a competition, since the start of 2007. With her investment advisers and mutual funds she's down 47%. I'm up 17%. On a virtual game I play seriously I'm up 207%.. wish that was real.

Still, someone needs to be more responsible and I think a lot of that is unraveling the mystery of what an investment bank is. Most people don't even know how it works, with the private banking sectors, offshore accounts, and other areas of banking that come close to the slippery slopes of corruption and evading taxes... the bastards.

The Stock Market, while yes its true that things like the balance sheet, the profits, market share, etc are very important, relies on one thing and one thing only: Confidence. The entire system is based off of confidence, and when people's confidence gets messed up the entire system crashes, as we're seeing right now. People got greedy, people got confidant, people invested badly. Some smart people (not looking at myself here) looked around, saw what was happening, and took their money out. People's confidence fell, and the system crashed. Madroff = con-man extraordinaire. Probably should start a new post on him lol.

Ahh stock markets. You may rise and fall but at least you're predictable.

And why the hell didn't I make that virtual account a real one =/