There was a peculiar buzzing sound coming from somewhere inside the Credit Suisse meeting, a mildly annoying vibrating bleep. Paul Calello, the bank’s commodities and derivatives chief, checked his briefcase. The buzzes got louder.
His daughter had decided to send her Tamagotchi toy pet to work with him, and it was hungry. Mr. Calello stopped Read More
The financial crisis has seen the collapse of some of America’s most iconic institutions — Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, General Motors and so on — a collapse amply documented in a growing pile of books by award-winning journalists, Wall Street insiders and government officials.
With each new addition to the financial crisis library comes Read More
AIG’s board is meeting today to discuss a way for the U.S. taxpayer to sell out of its investment in the troubled insurance company, Reuters reports.
Chairman Steve Miller said the company is hopeful that the government will make a profit from its roughly 80 percent stake in AIG. We already knew a Read More
As the end of the Troubled Asset Relief Program draws near, the agency that hunts down fraudulent recipients of bailout funds is staffing up and ratcheting up its efforts.
Reuters reports that the office of the TARP Special Investor General, which also goes by the spy agency – sounding name TARPSIG, plans to expand Read More
The number of banks that for whatever reason decided they were better off not paying the government the money they owe under the Troubled Asset Relief Program rose to 115, up from 91 in May, TheStreet.com reports.
If a bank racks up six delinquent payments, the government gets to install two new directors on Read More
As even casual observers of the financial press no doubt have realized, the second anniversary of the demise of Lehman Brothers arrives tomorrow. And the two years that now stand between that systemically terrifying event have done almost nothing to diminish the significance of the investment bank’s implosion in the Read More
On Sunday, the Bank for International Settlements announced an agreement that, in order to prevent another 2008-style crisis in which giant global banks reach the brink of failure and hold the global economy hostage, financial institutions now have to have a little extra capital socked away.
The new requirements, christened “Basel III” after its Read More
Barclays, the British banking giant that bought Lehman Brothers shortly after its September 2008 bankruptcy, today announced that John Varley would be stepping down as CEO on March 31. Bob Diamond (pictured with Jay-Z at the March 11 Atlantic Yards groundbreaking ceremony in Brooklyn) will succeed Varley.
Diamond, originally from Massachusetts, has been with Read More
As one might expect from the company that suffered the biggest U.S. bankruptcy ever, Lehman Brothers conducted less-than optimal oversight of its businesses. Our suspicions to that effect were confirmed today at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceeding in Manhattan. Barclays futures director Elizabeth James, who was involved when Barclays bought Lehman out of bankruptcy in September 2008, said, “Lehman’s Read More
Fortune today gives us a rare look at Dick Fuld, the now-reclusive ex-CEO of catastrophic failure Lehman Brothers, whose historic blowup in 2008 nearly caused the utter collapse of of the world financial system. So what’s Fuld been up to?
Avoiding getting shot, for starters. The last time Fuld granted an interview, all the Read More
