Lehmans

Generali

chucky wrote: »

to be fair Gen - GM have been struggling for quite a while, this period isn't the reason that they would go bust. it could just be the final nail in the coffin.

That's what happens in recessions though. The weak go to the wall.

There have been calls in the US to bail out the car firms next. If GM go bust then 1,000,000 people will lose their jobs according to a bloke on Radio 5 this afternoon.

It's starting to look like my theory that there will be a big jump to the left is happening. It'll be interesting to see if my idea that it'll be followed quite quickly by a step to the ri-i-i-i-i-ight* as governments discover that they can't afford socialism at the moment.




*I call this the Rocky Horror Picture Show Theory of Extreme Recession Economics (or RHPSTERE)

sabretoothtigger

Years ago they were talking about the gm problem, its because of its workers and their benefits it is sinking like a lead ship

Maybe obama will be smart and hedge his health reforms against the private health costs of firms like gm. But then there is pensions as well and somehow I think its all too late to juggle successfully

GM used to make more on finance then it did on the cars, I guess thats not true anymore then

If GM were an indian company with guys working for 5 dollars a day, exporting the cars back to usa and with no benefits payable. I bet they'd be making as much money as they ever were. They really should have exported these jobs years ago it seems to me

How can I get my share of these rates?

Some big uk institutions have a share of those barclays bonds but the majority went to the east afaik. So maybe your pension fund has a share, the best cuts always go to guys who buy in millions and billions sorry
Barclays have said they will raise funds publically in the uk in the spring when results are released, as far as I know

John_Pierpoint

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5336179.ece

The usual hubris shambles

WTF?_2

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5336179.ece

The usual hubris shambles

Great article and quite an insight into Fulds.

To say he was surrounded with a cult of personality would be an understatement. He was the textbook example of the “command-and-control CEO”. More than that, to many employees and to the outside world, he was Lehman Brothers – his character inextricably intertwined with the firm’s. Fuld inspired great loyalty and, on occasion, great fear. Those closest to him slaved like courtiers to a medieval monarch, second-guessing his moods and predilections, fretting over minute details of his schedule down to the flower arrangements and insulating him from trouble – from almost anything he might not want to hear.
His ferocity could be intimidating, his eyebrows beetling tight over his hard eyes, his brutally angular brow appearing to contort in rage. He would regularly upbraid colleagues for minor wardrobe malfunc-tions – in !!!!!!’s book, that tended to mean anything other than a dark suit and a white shirt or, in my case, a beard. “Are you off to the country club?” he would grunt dismissively at a senior executive committee member who looked just a tad too casual.

Hard to believe it was the same guy facing the congressional committee after it all went Tango Unicorn.

Another case of a 'Master of the Universe' brought low when the cheap and easy credit dried up.

Generali

I used to work at Nomura and still have some mates there.

They reckon that most of the ex-Lehmans guys are these dark suited, crew-cut clones that haven't got a clue what to do now the system has failed. I understand that there's a big sacking going on tomorrow - the reactions are always interesting on days like that.

setmefree2

Thought I'd dig up this old thread - so a year on we could all reminisce. What a lot has happened in the last year both to the global economy (and to this board:o)

Happy Anniversary!

Hope the past year hasn't been too pants for you. Quite a few of the posters on this thread have now departed. Great shame.....

Generali

setmefree2 wrote: »

Thought I'd dig up this old thread - so a year on we could all reminisce. What a lot has happened in the last year both to the global economy (and to this board:o)

Happy Anniversary!

Hope the past year hasn't been too pants for you. Quite a few of the posters on this thread have now departed. Great shame.....

There was an interesting program on The World Service (link) about the guys from PWC that are winding up Lehmans in London.

It's a funny mix of the prosaic (one of the liquidators was coaching his son's football team when he was called in to Lehmans on the Sunday so waited until the game was finished) and the really quite worrying (a year after Lehmans went bust, some High Street banks still haven't agreed their positions with Lehmans!).

One of the conclusions that they come to is that it's impossible to know or understand the risks that a firm like Lehmans is taking.

purch

Lehman Brothers

Who were they ??

Sounds like some 70's 'prog rock' band

StevieJ

Where is Sir Humphrey? (not seen since April) the civil service must have blocked internet access as part of the cost cutting :eek:

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

Where is Sir Humphrey? (not seen since April) the civil service must have blocked internet access as part of the cost cutting :eek:

He seemed to be posting some pretty grumpy stuff and then just disappeared.

I met him, Betty Page and Guy_Montag in a pub in Clerkenwell once for another web forum drinkup. He's a bright lad in a Professorial sort of way, bit of a Trot unfortunately but really a very clever bloke.