Since Lehman's collapse in September 2008, regulators around the world have begun erecting a scaffolding of new rules and regulations designed limit excessive risk-taking. The big question is: Are they enough to prevent another financial crisis?
It has been two years since Lehman Brothers went under, sparking the Great Recession. While the banks have done surprisingly well in past two years, the economy is still struggling to recover and millions remain out of work. Here are 10 charts of key economic indicators to watch.
Muriel "Mickie" Siebert, the grande dame of Wall Street, says that Lehman Brothers should never have collapsed, that government's steps were a necessary evil and that there is a still a need for more regulation. She warns that left unregulated, the markets and the economy could still face turmoil ahead.
Many aspects of the financial crisis are still with us. But when it comes to one of the most profound economic impacts of the 2008 meltdown -- the downright seizure of credit markets -- things could hardly be more different now than during the height of the crisis.
This week marks the second anniversary of an event that shook the financial industry to its core. In her newly released book, The Weekend that Changed Wall Street, CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo gives an insider's look at the fateful days surrounding the fall of Lehman Brothers.
The lawyers and accountants circling Lehman Brothers stand to make more than $2 billion in fees for unwinding one of Wall Street's largest investment banks after its collapse in 2008 -- and that's despite the fact that many of the services are being provided at discount rates.
"It felt like the world was on fire," recalls financial writer Andrew Ross Sorkin, whose book Too Big To Fail covers the crisis at its peak. In an interview, he discusses the meltdown, its aftermath, the quest for power on Wall Street and why more regulation is still needed.
The capital markets have recovered nicely from the depths of the financial crisis's despair, though skittishness remains. What the economy sorely needs now is the next big thing -- perhaps a new technology that boosts business productivity.
Two years after Lehman Brothers collapsed and put the financial crisis into meltdown mode, Wall Street and the financial industry are still struggling to rebuild from the ashes. But as the economy recovers, are bank stocks good buys? Here are the bull and bear cases for three of the nation's biggest banks.
September marks the anniversary of two events that rocked the markets: the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008. Today, many people worry about the possibility of a terrorist attack on the financial system. International economist Rex Ghosh, who has written a novel about just that, discusses the threat.
Lehman Brothers Holdings, the once great Wall Street firm that went bankrupt at the height of the financial crisis, says it will have to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into two struggling units to avoid failures that could cost the investment bank billions.
Since the recession began, more than 8 million Americans have lost their jobs. But perhaps even more surprising is the small number of companies that are responsible for laying off such a large percentage of today's unemployed workers.
Lehman Brothers, whose 2008 death signaled the gravity of the financial crisis, remains very much alive to those of its creditors still awaiting payment. Now, it looks like some businesses in Europe could get speedier payments than they would have gotten otherwise.
