lehman brothers bankruptcy

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a civil lawsuit against Ernst & Young, alleging that the accounting giant helped now-defunct investment bank Lehman Brothers hide billions of dollars in debt from its investors via loans disguised as sales.

The financial crisis was produced by a complex set of circumstances, including a massive housing bubble, poor regulation and irresponsible lending on an epic scale. A handful of bankers became the public faces of the crisis, and now, two years later, we take a look at what became of them.

From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to the cubicles and boardrooms of New York's biggest banks, when Lehman Brothers failed seemingly overnight, it was clear that the rules had suddenly changed. Here are some recollections of that day in September, 2008.

The former CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, blames the firm's collapse on hedge funds and short sellers that bet on declines in Lehman's stock price. That explanation may be satisfying for Fuld, but there's one problem -- it's probably not true.

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.

"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.

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.