DealBook is reporting that Lehman will file for bankruptcy tonight. The holding company will go into Chapter 11 protection from creditor, certain subsidiaries will remain solvent, it’s broker dealer arm will file under Chapter 7 for liquidation. Despite the different legal treatments, the idea under each plan will be an orderly dissolution of the firm.
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- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
what does this mean for lehman employees? Do they go to work tomorrow? Do they get any severance?
R.I.P. LEH.
damn
I hope this means we’ve hit bottom in this crisis. It feels like the bottom. I can’t imagine things getting any worse than this.
@1
can of mayo
muahahhahahahahhahahahahahahaaaaaa
does anyone else here notice the absence of the usual shit going on on this site – mayo etc? what a relief
#1
they are the ones that put LEH in the horrible position they are in! why should they be rewarded. MAKE em pay I say
Fleming the Leprechaun is the winner…
“Merrill’s thundering herd of 15,000 brokers will be combined with Bank of America’s smaller group of wealth advisors. The entity will be run by Robert McCann, the head of Merrill’s global wealth management business.
Mr. Fleming, Merrill’s president, will be president of the combined bank’s corporate and investment bank while Thomas Montag, a former Goldman executive who started at Merrill in August, will head all the merged company’s all risk, trading and institutional sales.”
@1 fuld will send an email tonight to everybody i guess
Unbelievable
Carney, good work this weekend
This is the most FUCKED up night in the history of Wall St and there is almost ZERO tv coverage of this
they cant file for 11 protection. theyre filing for 7.
Oh, and also, BofA is merging with Merrill. What a day.
the lack of mayo etc is bc the retail brokers and financial advisors who write that shit don’t pay attention on the weekends…hopefully it stays that way.
@1 fuld will send an email tonight to everybody i guess
Those poor employees (:
Weil is doing the filing, which will be backed up by a consortium of banks. At least LEH is dying surrounded by friends and loved ones.
@11 – mind blowing isn’t it? It’s all football, the hurricane in Texas, and political windbag fuckwits…the world won’t know what hit ‘em…
what the hell does mayo mean anyway, and is their any official word on merril yet?
what happens to LEH employees in this situation? will they get a severance?
what happens to LEH employees in this situation? will they get a severance?
I want to know what happens to Lehman’s Indexes and analytics system POINT. Both products rely heavily on their trading floor providing levels on bonds as well as yield curves and other market data. They also have a mortgage model that they use to calculate durations for the indexes and in their POINT system.
So what happens when all of the resources they need to calculate indexes evaporate? If the company goes under, can they spin off their index/analytics team as a separate organization, or would somebody like Wilshire or Barra step up and buy them? In the former case, they need to have committments from their desks to price bonds and to stand by those quotes in case clients want to execute trades, and these committments have taken years to establish. Even if they are able to build these products based on some other data providers, this takes time, and it’s not like Lehman indexes can take a holiday for a week (i.e. not publish for a week). These indexes, by the way, are used in billions (maybe trillions?) of dollars of total return swaps / bond ETFs, not to mention as benchmarks for most fixed income portfolios in the US.
Any thoughts?
There is typically no severance in BK. Cash to the IRS and Attorneys first. Employees are way down the list.
Any guesses where Lehman debt trades tomorrow?
20 cents?
what are associate numbers?
Update from Robert Prestons Blog at BBC (he’s probably the best financial journo in UK):
Sometime before midnight US time, Lehman is expected to file for Chapter 11 and go into administration over here.
I have been told that its executives are seeing the New York Fed right now to investigate whether it can borrow several billion dollars so that it can go into an orderly liquidation as an alternative to formal insolvency.
But Lehman executives do not expect the Fed to give them the funding that would be required, so they assume their business will formally collapse.
The implications will be huge. If the new controllers of the business in insolvency feel obliged to sell assets, that could do severe damage to other banks, because there would be a sharp fall in the market value of those assets.
In the round, the collapse of Lehman would knock bankers’ already enfeebled confidence. They will become even more reluctant to lend to most of us. The credit crunch would take a turn for the worse.
Even in terms of the impact on unemployment, the damage will be considerable – in that Lehman employs around 25,000 worldwide, including 5000 in the UK.
I am hearing that the US Treasury and the Fed hope however that the contagion to other banks shouldn’t be too appalling – in that Bank of America appears to be close to buying the next most vulnerable investment bank, Merrill Lynch
In respect of shocks to Wall Street, there hasn’t been a weekend like it for something like 80 years.
this has got to be the craziest weekend I’ve ever lived through, and trust me I’m a pervert, I’ve had some strange weekends
@ 11 it is fucking unbelievable to me that there is no tv coverage of this. How many hours did cable news devote to britney spears various shit shows and this gets nothing.
It proves to me that the average person has no idea what is going on in America.
It is ironic that CNBC is running an infommercial on how to buy a house for $300 and sell it for full value (they don’t say full value may only be $150).
Great job on your coverage JC!!!!
@7 there probably will be no compensation, but only a few put lehman in the position its in.
you do realize that its more than traders that will be affected: admins, support staff, IT, all paid in some part with stock. you should never be happy with another’s loss
Amazing Fox News has jack, CNN has jack, CNBC has some fricking weight loss chick.
Drudge is the only place mentioning the crap going down.
@23…look for someone like MS/GS to make an offer for them.
When Drexel went under,Salomon paid top dollar for their database.There’s too much value in the fixed income analytics area of LEH for it to be idle for long.
@20: I’m not a BK attorney, so my answer may not be spot on, but I believe that post-petition severance is not considered a payment in the ordinary course of business and therfore is not allowed without court authorization. With such an authorization, I believe LEH could classify the payments as “administrative expenses,” which are allowed to be paid post-petition. Again, this may not be 100% accurate, but that’s my understanding of the situation.
Sorry for all of you guys, this whole thing is terrible . . .
Another’s loss is my gain. Short on LEH!
Man, I sold out my last bank shares on Wednesday. That may have been the greatest trade of my life…
The question now is whether I have the bottle to buy back in if(!) the market tanks again.
SKF!
Question -> how does Goldman seem so unscathed in all this? Aside from slight dents in its daily stock price, it seems to be in a world of its own, untouched by the dismal luck of BSC and LEH…Possible that Falcone, Einhorn, etc have a hand in the downfall of LEH?
SKF!
I would guess that a bankruptcy court wouldn’t allow severence.
is barclays back on the table for a last minute bid?
@38
look for goldman to get involved real soon. a very interesting prospect for them would be to buy a wachovia or (less likely) wamu, just to keep up with the huge conglomerates citi, jpm, and now bofa/ml
@ #38, Goldman is so unscathed because they ARE the market. LEH needs to go bankrupt? Done. Sick of those pain in the ass bankers at Merrill? Done. Those loser outsiders at Bear? Done.
@38
Goldman hedged!
Holy mother of cunt punching, LEH finally bit the dust. Independent brokerages are going to become a thing of the past. FDIC insured balance sheets for all!
@35 – you are so cool you fuckin toad – keep your eyes open at the toll booth tonight. That $8.35 an hour can buy you a couple Citi puts next week!!!
Thanks @33, I used to work in the Salomon Index group, I’m guessing those folks @ Citi are real happy that Lehman is toppled.
But my point (pardon the pun) still stands that even if MS/GS offers to buy the indexes and analytics, it’s not like it’s a plug-and-chug type of model … you need major commitments both with data and infrastructurally to keep these things going. And the nature of the business is that clients can’t afford to go a month in many cases a whole week without a working analytics engine or index.
Anyway, I guess there are bigger concerns. RIP in Lehman and I hope all the employees land on their feet.
Australian mkt opening in positive territory…and since its a commodity driven mkt are HFs betting the LEH collapse going to reverse the commodity trade momentum?…maybe they are only getting the hurricane coverage; but even if they are slightly off on their focus, at least they will have checked out that survival blog…thx for that link
@8 Source?
heard bill miller went heavy long lehman on friday. oh well, can’t win ‘em all.
NBC Nightly news mentioned it 12 minutes into the newscast and spent about 2 minutes on it. They were basically like turn to CNBC at 8pm if you want an update.
Good work today Carney.
The main stories now are the BoA/MER merger and AIG’s restructuring. Aussie stock futures pointing up… optimism surrounding these deals will gain momentum and quickly overshadow the LEH story.
Condolences to all LEH employees… enjoy the lie in tomorrow.
Seriously? John Beck’s Free and Clear coverage? If CNBC can’t cover the greatest market meltdown in the history of financial television, what value do they provide? If the executives at Fox Business wanted an opportunity to gain credibility and get some bragging rights they would pull the Cavuto re-runs and be on top of this story…
I can’t believe as a country we are more concerned with lipstick on pigs and “earmarks” of a few hundred million bucks when our entire financial system is about to collapse.
Also, what does it say about the big media outlets when the journalists who are actually on top of this story are blogs?
Great job to JC and as much as I hate to admit it, nice job to ARS as well.
Sorry to all of the Lehman brothers employees, it was a great firm and it is a very sad day for over 25K employees worldwide.
@35 Eat shit and die. I just put a curse on you and all your progeny from now until eternity. I am a witch, I can do shit like that.
odd lot @ 35 We may make money off this but shut the FUCK up.
Thousands of people are losing thier jobs, life savings, and probably thier houses. Up to 80% of LEH bonsus’s were paid in LEH stock. This is a horrible day for the employees of LEH.
If you want to dance on thier graves go to a different place but NOT here.
And remember KARMA is a BITCH!
Carney you kicked ass this weekend.
@54…. agreed. i’m sitting here trying to get @#$%in updates and CNBC has paid programming, with some other channels running the usual political BS. thank god for DB…
carney, you should set up a special place for all (former) LEH employees to vent etc. now they went fear the wrath of fuld
In BK, employees only entitled to severance if it is part of the employment agreement. And then it becomes a general unsecured claim, with a limit of about $8,000 that gets treated as priority over other general claims. Employees will be mostly SOL.
dow futures down 290, s&p and nasdaq futures down ~3%
NYU’s NR on Bloomberg TV in 10 min…for those of you who lost patience in the 18 paragraph of that earlier post extensively covering the blatantly obvious
BBC News is doing an up-to-date spot on LEH right now.
as much as I hate to be the one to do it, but this totally deserves a SHAM-WOW! phew, it needed to get out…
cnbc world is on, so we have some coverage (albeit b level reporting)…dow futures down 276 (a little north of 2%) and the s&p is down 3%.
I can’t believe kenny boy is going to go with the herd! I was relieved when he got talked off the ledge and walked away from leh. the race is officially on. leh proved to be too toxic for anyone sans a gov’t backstop. this does not bode well for others holding resi mortgages (this is the wake up call for wm, wfc and wb). at least now we know that a $639 billion asset investment bank isn’t considered “too big to fail”. ok, let’s hope this is over before entourage – it’s very distracting.
7:04pm EST
DJZ8 -295
SPZ8 -37.90
NDZ8 -43.50
TYZ8 +1-17+
Unfortunately, like the Tacoma Narrows scenario this starts a harmonic resonance that will, regardless of what the Fed/treas does, set in motion a cascade of falling values Maybe a temp pop if something + announced but doomed to fail as the leverage vs the notionals is simply insurmountable. Its game over and its tragic.
Why should anything be believed on this site? Didn’t you post earlier that a deal was reached?
Why should anything be believed on this site? Didn’t you post earlier that a deal was reached?
Why should anything be believed on this site? Didn’t you post earlier that a deal was reached?
Meanwhile chumps buy oil vs the dollar Yeah, like a meltdown is going to stimulate demand. Algorithmic Pairs trading idiocy.
News wires right now:
MERRILL BOARD MEETING NOW, VOTING ON OFFER AT $29-SHR: WSJ
LEH SAID TO BE PREPARING TO FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY – company spokeman
Morgan Stanley is so screwed.
In many ways more crippled than MER financially, including a higher % of level 3 assets and a higher degree of gross leverage.
With BAC buying MER and JPM already with its hands full with BS, the number of eligible bachelors is shrinking as we speak.
Plus the “backstop” looks like it will tie up even more capital of the few players with excess liquidity.
I will be shocked if MS manages to stay above 25 Monday.
God only knows what type of counterparty losses they will suffer from LEH’s demise.
Free bloomberg tv
http://www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/tv/europe/tv_index_europe.htm
@11 – Reason for no coverage? Charlie Gasparino is in his CT house banging his Chihuahua and can’t bothered to come in to work…….
Are Aussies are stupid ? The world is falling, but this cangaroos are dancing on their own graves.
Do you think the talking heads in the mainstream media are going to give up their late Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening to cover the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression? It’s not in their contract to work on Sundays.
Are Aussies are stupid ? The world is falling, but this cangaroos are dancing on their own graves.
Are Aussies are stupid ? The world is falling, but this cangaroos are dancing on their own graves.
Are Aussies are stupid ? The world is falling, but this cangaroos are dancing on their own graves.
Let’s discuss the implications of today’s events…
what does everyone think is going to happen tomorrow?
Are Aussies are stupid ? The world is falling, but this cangaroos are dancing on their own graves.
Are Aussies are stupid ? The world is falling, but this cangaroos are dancing on their own graves.
Wonder how many Manhattan condos and co-ops go into foreclosure considering that several thousand once wealthy people are losing their jobs and most of their savings.
And as tax revenue shrinks and the economy goes to crap, watch crime go back up to pre-Giuliani levels.
Also watch out for Skadden, Wachtell, Cravath, Davis Polk, S&C, etc to suspend bonuses, no-offer most of their summer classes, delay the start date for the rest, and force out marginal partners.
Their litigation/bankruptcy departments will do just fine, but 75%+ of their attorneys are transactional lawyers who’ve never seen the inside of a courtroom.
@79 not sure about us Aussies but we do know how to spell *kangaroo*. Good luck mate.
i like when people call other people stupid, yet cant read and follow the simple instructions “please only submit your comment once”
What the hell is going to happen to Lehman’s family of indices?
Anyone able to provide quotes on financial indexes or futures? Is there something like the SKF that trades in an asian market that will actually be open Monday?
quid of severance?
@80: a lot of BS from the FED saying everything will be okay, “Nothing to see here, Move along.”
For those of us in cash/short financials, the next couple of months will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to pick up some nice stocks very cheap.
@83 it will be interesting to see what happens with Manhattan real estate prices. Given the lack of affordability already and much less bonus money chasing properties, I have to think there will be a correction. Interesting to see how the “average” 1-2 bedroom lux unit adjusts. There is still a lot of new build out there that needs to get moved.
A sad day for the financial institutions of America on many levels.
For all of America’s collective intelligence, its collective greed (IBs and everyone in the real estate market – owners, developers, mortgage originators) has blinded it to the risk it was taking on. Perhaps some market consolidation was due but this is scary. RIP Lehman Bros…
85: follow all the instructions u read, and u will end just like Lehman business.
You guys are being a touch melodramatic. While the Lehman bust is big, it is not huge in the scope of things, and pales in comparison to the events that took Drexel out. A little sad, perhaps, but earth-shattering? Not even close.
AP reporting Fed may be more generous in lending program w/ banks in talk to create lending pool for troubled firms worth around $50b
Banks seen offering plan to restore confidence
By JOE BEL BRUNO and MARTY CRUTSINGER – 49 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AP) — As the outlook for Lehman Brothers’ future appeared to dim Sunday, U.S. and foreign banks joined forces to create a plan aimed at inoculating the global financial system against the investment bank’s possible failure, a top investment banking official said.
Banks are in tense talks to create a pool of money worth up to $50 billion to lend troubled financial companies, the official said on condition of anonymity because the discussions were ongoing. And officials at the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve are expected to say they are prepared to be more generous in the Fed’s emergency lending program for commercial and investment banks .
Does this mean there will be no Holiday Party @ Lehman Bros. Dick Fuld has done such an awesome job. I mean LEH was around for 150 years before he took over and crashed it to the ground. See what happens when you sellout your peoples & intermarry?
@93 – Care to elaborate for a newbie?
Thanks
@90
For dear god don’t try to call a RE bottom and buy in the next 12 months.
Remember that a lot of financials are not marking to market, like insurance companies and plenty of small and regional banks. Foreclosures also take 6-12 months from the first missed payment to actually going on the market. And a lot of stressed owners burn through savings first before defaulting.
Japanese real estate has either declined or been flat for something like 17 straight years.
to 84: Are Aussies are stupid ? The world is falling, but this Kangaroos are dancing on their own graves.
spoos down 31+
Does anyone know anybody who was at BSC and went to LEH after Bears collapse? Talk about being the red-headed stepchild…
is it a good time to buy financial stocks or will they still hit bottom,
I guess ML indices are #1 now, but I doubt LEH indices will dissapear. Someone will buy them out. Too much money riding on them.
Horrible time to be bargain hunting financials.
For example, plenty are leveraged 10x or 20x.
For the latter, a 6% decline in asset value more than makes them worthless. There is simply no value in many of them.
If you see CEOs making more than nominal 5000 share open market purchases of their stock, that MIGHT be a good sign.
I would not touch any financial’s common stock.
Regarding LEH indices. A bigger question is what are all the asset managers, hedge funds, pensions, et al going to benchmark themselves against?
I’d buy BAC at $25 all day long
australia not opened yet– in less than 30 mins tho.
LEH may have had 600+ billion of assets…..but only 30 Billion of assets……….
You hear that noise…….you know what that is………its the sound of DEFLATION!!!!!
Any semi decent quant with about 3 minutes of experience saw this coming.
Is BAC just trying to make sure they’re too big to fail??
man that deal jpm got was sweet
re: leh index… there are about 50 other providers of indices that can be used
I know several bankers from my division who left BSC prior to retention date (forego severance!!!) and went to LEH…
Delation is a decline in the monetary standard,numbnuts.It’s not a decline in asset prices.
Riddle me this batman………why in the world does:
1. Any corporation take advice from an Investment Bank; and,
2. Why would anyone ever ever think investment bank “research” is worth more than the paper it is written on………
(1) No Idea
(2) Wouldn’t (except goldman industry reports)
@110 – once in a lifetime, apparently
Any LEH employee ought to head to their office tonight and clean it out while they can.Tomorrow will be a circus unlike any they’ve ever seen.
@ 114 (1) So they have someone else to blame and (2) most is actually priced at parity to its energy values
@ 113 -
We are clearly heading into a deflationary spiral. All of the assets against which all of this debt is leveraged clearly arent considered as valuable as they once were……people are taking haircuts left right and center……….asset values are devaluating…this is deflation…….you clearly work for an investment bank
@102/104 – I’ll offer up a somewhat contrary opinion. you could buy financials “selectively”. the key is to determine who the survivors will be. I’ve said it before, wb, wfc and wm are likely to go lower (fd – I’m long puts on wb) given their exposure to the residential mortgages in ca. if you look at the unemployment rolls, you’ll see that ca has been climbing. suggests more pain to come. there are a few de-novo banks, but you need to have “real” money to invest (or know the principles). one caveat, tpg is a big investor in wm and they just raised $6bn for investments in fin svc firms. the question is, how much more do they want to put into an ailing portfolio company. also, wfc is benefiting from the buffet halo – he’s a big shareholder.
insurance companies should get a bounce after hurricane season. they have been suffering from a soft market lately, however, with all the activity in the atlantic – rates are sure to go up next year.
also take a look at some of the debt recovery firms – praa has held up well.
lastly, it may be late, but pawn shops will do well in this environment. so, no, financials aren’t dead, just be selective.
This is a picture of the emerbency evacuation kit given to all employees. guess they should have stocked with unemployment apps instead of a smoke filter and flashlight.
http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=n1010371332379699626tw6.jpg
For once the elliott wave guys called this one spot on……
@102/104 – I’ll offer up a somewhat contrary opinion. you could buy financials “selectively”. the key is to determine who the survivors will be. I’ve said it before, wb, wfc and wm are likely to go lower (fd – I’m long puts on wb) given their exposure to the residential mortgages in ca. if you look at the unemployment rolls, you’ll see that ca has been climbing. suggests more pain to come. there are a few de-novo banks, but you need to have “real” money to invest (or know the principles). one caveat, tpg is a big investor in wm and they just raised $6bn for investments in fin svc firms. the question is, how much more do they want to put into an ailing portfolio company. also, wfc is benefiting from the buffett halo – he’s a big shareholder.
insurance companies should get a bounce after hurricane season. they have been suffering from a soft market lately, however, with all the activity in the atlantic – rates are sure to go up next year.
also take a look at some of the debt recovery firms – praa has held up well.
lastly, it may be late, but pawn shops will do well in this environment. so, no, financials aren’t dead, just be selective.
I work for Lehman in IT
Just received an email that upper management asks us to report for work at 7 am and to ensure that all production systems are working normally in anticipation of heavy volumes.
WTF?
I work for Lehman in IT
Just received an email that upper management asks us to report for work at 7 am and to ensure that all production systems are working normally in anticipation of heavy volumes.
WTF?
I work for Lehman in IT
Just received an email that upper management asks us to report for work at 7 am and to ensure that all production systems are working normally in anticipation of heavy volumes.
WTF?
forgive the double post, fking time warner high speed internet sux! got dropped and didn’t realize the post went through the first time.
@ 124 / 125/ 126 – which part of the trading system did you design?
@125
Assuming this is a chapter 11 – where allowed by law as opposed to a forced 7 – someone will be putting up some DIP financing.
Hope you have a retention bonus……….
@Cluzo
No doubt huh? Worst service on earth (except maybe the cable service from same name).
As an aside, what would be interesting to find out is how many FI’s have invested in hedge funds as LP’s and are betting against themselves
i told my friend who was laid off last tuesday that she was the lucky one. i was right. now i won’t be getting any severance. thanks dick.
haven’t gotten any emails from mgmt yet. i think i’ll show up in shorts tomorrow.
CNBC just started a special report.
Does anyone know if Bess is still planning on visiting the coffee cart guy tomorrow? We need a picture…volunteers?
@132
I suspect that at the end of the day your friend wont be seeing much either, unless she walked out with a certified check in hand.
You know what is the best skill an out of work banker can have? Being able to sweep and do the windows………….
I’m a Lehman employee. Have been there over 8 years. Sold LEH shares as soon as I received them (they vest after 5 years). Lehman had the most restrictive vesting period on the street.
The lion share of the bonus, needless to say, was received when I became more senior – last 5 years. I had about $1mm at the high price of the stock. Now I have NOTHING.
I am going to have to make real life changes. Who is to blame?
As much as I wouldn’t want to blame someone, I would say the ones to blame are the ones that were swept away with the tide of easy money (read, appreciating real estate). I’d blame their short-sightedness in not thinking that things don’t revert to the mean.
jim cramer is currently clearing everything up for us on cnbc. nothing to worry about!
CNBC Brings on Cramer to talk – “good special” idiots
You’d think they’d have Cramer call in on a landline if it was worth hearing from him.
hearing his stupid voice just makes me sick. thought i was tuning in to hear how this all went down, not about genzyme and KO
holy fk! there is a mob outside of leh hq. this is a circus. you can clearly see people taking bags full of $hit (likely pitch books ect) with press cameras popping every time someone goes through the revolving doors.
bill gross was talking some sense – do we really need cramer? where’s bess?
@136 Spouse of LEH employee here – damn i should just make this my logon already.
What’s your next move? You mention life changes. Leave the Street?
Seriously considering suggesting same to spouse. Maybe it’s just over and done with, time for a whole new track.
I’m gonna go in and round up some of those emergency evac kits under the desks.
136 & 142
Get togother figure out your “life change” write a book, do oprah and retire millionaires!
Gasparino get the fucking oatmeal out of your mouth…. change that absurd suit/shirt/tie combo…. first Gasparino then Cramer, there HAS GOT TO BE BETTER BUSINESS REPORTERS IN AMERICA THAN THE GYM TEACHER GASPRINO and manic Cramer numbnut
If BofA buys ML, whose IB absorbs the majority of the layoffs? Traditionally you’d think it would be the purchasee, but MER has the more mature, respected IB.
@136 & 142.
Sorry if my comment at @144 was callous. It was not meant to be.
I was half way serious.
I have been where you are – granted much younger and without family. A chronic disease dictated a different route than my original plan. It was a mjor life change (major financial implications).
So far the different route has worked out well (perhaps better than orginal).
Good Luck!
Carney did a good job keeping this site on point while the entire world is off on stupidity.
Wonder what the true chain reaction of all this will result in. Everyone looking back at 911 as our entire system unravels.
Aussies start to come to grip with realities, – 1,5 % … that is only beginning
LEH on the verge, Merrill shaking, Houston/Gulf Coast oil and petrochemical plants shut down in a hellish environment …and what worries me is how all this will affect my positions tomorrow.
@147 It’s OK. I could tell it wasn’t mean-spirited.
I probably shouldn’t do this – bare private biz on this site full of mostly vultures – but since you seem v nice, I might as well give it a shot.
Spouse hasn’t even a degree, which sux, big time. Yes he should have gotten it but never did. Only through hard work (and I mean really hard) was he able to advance to his level. Knows everything about his end of the biz, great manager and motivator, lead major projects, deals w/ very senior levels etc. and no one knows or cares this fact about him. However, without degree and skills limited to this industry, I have serious concerns for his career future. Any ideas are welcome!
I’m glad that for you, you were able to overcome your adversity and find a happy path in life.
I do thank the Universe at least our house is paid off.
Will ALL LEH employees be laid off or will some be retained?
We still got room for you in North Dakota!
~”Vlad” Krappenfuldichtsheissenhorst
North Dakota Welcome Committee
Fargo, ND
bill gross talking real sense now…leh bk may be at the hold co. to get to the bottom of this mess, need to read the fine print people. there is a reason companies form all these subsidiaries. where is ackerman and his power point?
on the real estate front. I know someone who bought an apt this year b/c he lives in another city but leh wanted him to be in ny during the week. could have ramifications for the market. however, the appetite of foreigners (despite the rise of the dollar recently) remains strong. I’m on the condo board of my building and there was a sale last month – thankfully, the price was steady with prior sales.
OK, where does one put cash these days?
What kind of stupid comment was that just now…as long as someone doesn’t steal client assets, they are safe.
These are some great guests they have on.
WSJ – BAC buys MER for $29 a share.
Board approve B of A deal for MER
Board approve B of A deal for MER
Wow! The shiteth hath hiteth the faneth!
Oh and E&Y is out of a nice audit big $30M audit client in LEH. I guess some auditors will get laid off too…
I hope everyone forwards their phones to Dick Fuld tomorrow.
so AIG turns to the FED? WTF??? and LEH dies?
Why are my fellow lehmanites emptying their desks tonight? Should I head in just to get on camera?
Who is this guy talking, I missed his intro. He’s really scaring me!!!
Can anyone respond to query: Where to put cash? And no smart ass comments please. I’m serious.
Who is this guy talking, I missed his intro. He’s really scaring me!!!
Can anyone respond to query: Where to put cash? And no smart ass comments please. I’m serious.
I’m not sure if this has been covered off yet, but does anyone know what happens to LEH’s outstanding short positions to institutional money managers.
OK, so Fed pushes MER/BAC…is going to loan to AIG, and let’s LEH die on the vine. F the Fed!
I’m not sure if this has been covered off yet, but does anyone know what happens to LEH’s outstanding short and unsettled trade positions with institutional bond money managers.
@168 shouldn’t there be a period of unwinding?
LeH employee’s are not creditors or bondholders, so the short answer is that they will not get any severance.
i would be surprised that top executives get anything since there losses were so huge. But wait did not this same scenerio play out on the airlines. Top exec took parachutes while the lowly employee just got let go.
talk about a shaft.
i guess 6 months from now, will we see this hit the average american.
Keep your cash in cash.
@166 & 168
Don’t worry, you’re operate team is creating a script so you don’t have to click the buttons tomorrow to erase LEH from the database
You are an asshole.
Don’t forget Hank Paulsons brother is/was a fixed income salesman as LEH.
Who rep’d MER and/or BAC in deal? Law firms?
I’m going to bed.
Anyone know what now happens to the guaranteed bonuses of those who went over to Lehman this year?
The Fed seems to be taking a huge calculated risk here. I hope they have really thought through the potential implications – particularly the possible contaigion this may cause. One would have thought that all the “brillant” financial geniuses could have structured a deal that would allow LEH to survive in some form. Bush and Paulson have just bet their legacy on the hope that this will all work out. Reminds me of Hoover in 1929.
– Chris D.
What possible legacy has Bush to defend??? Get real FED reprieve for a day or so then the real Tsunami begins. Shorts will pile back in vs BOA. Back in the 80s it was fear of computers starting nuclear war This week it will be the financial equivalent when the Algorithms r set loose. Only Palin can stop this…
@178 “only Palin can stop this”
LOL
@177
IMHO Bush legacy is already that he will go down in history as the single worst president in the history of USA. If this gamble works out badly it will only add to his legacy.
Paulson has a legacy outside of this. And a billion dollars of his own wealth. Michael Miliken survived (i dare say thrived) and so will Paulson.
@113……….
I’m still waiting for you explain to me how this isnt the beginning of a deflationary spiral……….
@181…..Mideast oil producers have to put their US$ somewhere. They are the asset buyers of last resort. Bush legacy – your granchildren will work for a Saudi prince.
@182 – probably right.
I love seeing all of these ardent capitalist calling for socialist government intervention………this is good entertainment
Will employees get severance pay?
Uh Oh….AIG is in deep shit.
WSJ reports they may be downgraded and the result could put them out within a week (downgrade triggers on their swaps will kick-in and suck-out at least 25% of their capital which will result in another downgrade unless they raise more capital).
It is reported that AIG is asking the Fed for temporary funding. Good luck. After their action on LEH, I doubt they can justify it. But can the economic system withstand a double shock in less than one week?
Unemployed Investment Bankers and Analysts of the World, UNITE!
goodbye cuff links and hermes tie douchebags…sell your black cars and condos to each other in Joisey…no more hamptons for you
goodbye cuff links and hermes tie douchebags…sell your black cars and condos to each other in Joisey…no more hamptons for you
@186…..This is really not the time for jokes. People are losing their jobs, their savings and their lives will forever be altered. You should be ashamed. Where is your humanity?
@ 151
You will be okay. Owning your house is a huge plus.
Remember there are lots of vey successful people without university degrees.
Get your husband to use all his contacts outside LEH. All those who worked with him, and were happy with his work. Get him to hit the ground running.
You will be okay.
Good luck!
@151:
I know where your spouse is coming from, since I’m a college drop-out myself. I can offer a small bit of advice and that is that the degree thing is a non-issue for your spouse as long as he’s motivated and it sounds like he is. I never bothered with the college route, worked for a lot of startups and have made an extremely successful life for myself – basically retired in my 30s now. It is possible to succeed the traditional way – go to a good school, get that good job at the big bank, whatever, but it’s a lot easier to go it your own way. Yeah, it’s painful getting something off the ground, but once you do it you never look back. Your spouse should consider running his own business – just think of all the competition you won’t have because they lack the initiative and creativity to set out on their own and are slogging away at some horrid little desk in one of these places like LEH…
There’s nothing wrong with getting a college degree, but to be honest with you I never consider a degree when I’m hiring employees; you’re not hiring a college, you’re hiring a person. You’ll get all kinds of crap from companies when you interview with them and they find out you don’t have a degree. These are the same companies that will be begging to buy the company that you go out and start, because they can’t execute. At the very least, if your spouse starts his own business and fails, that’s still a lot more impressive on your resume than saying you worked for Whatever Bros…
@185…When you refer to AIG’s potential capital diffusion – I think you mau mean to say 25% of their capital at the holding company (even that is not exactly right – but I will not argue the fine points here). The subsidiaries still have about $1 trillion of assets and a significant portion of that is equity and they have a solid core business. Even so, they apparantly need $40 billion – which is a daunting capital raise in this environment.
Oh, God, Pleae, No! You can’t let this happen. I’ve been working there for four years! It’s going to be an effed up Monday.
I posted above and was drunk all weekend out of time and came home to this, so I’m in shock! I shouldn’t have come back! What have you done to me, Richard Fuld! I hate you!
@190 & 191
Thanks guys, I appreciate the support & inspiration.
Spouse is still at 745, preparing for whatever tomorrow brings, looks like an all-nighter.
to: #193
yes
Um, anyone who works for Lehman who might be reading this want to do something special for the last day? If we’re going to go down, let’s go down in style! Meet me in the lobby at 9, I’ll be in blue shirts and a white t shirt holding up a sign. Thanks!
Call it schadenfreude if you like, but it is refreshing to see the chickens come home to roost.
All of the prop traders who speculated with other companies now know what life feels like on the other side of a short. Consider it a lesson learned.
Did it take a genius to know that 30 and 40 to 1 leverage would end up like this. Almost as smart as people who think that another rate cut is what is needed……..its time to take your lumps and purge the system. Any and every small business owner knows this
Um, anyone who works for Lehman who might be reading this want to do something special for the last day? If we’re going to go down, let’s go down in style! Meet me in the lobby at 9, I’ll be in blue shorts and a white t shirt holding up a sign. Thanks!
@189: LEH isn’t a papermill – this isn’t about a bunch of hard-working decent folks getting screwed by an unforeseen economic decline, it’s about a bunch of bloodsucking creeps who’ve been screwing individual investors and companies for years finally getting what’s theirs. You can’t blame people for taking some joy in seeing the people who routinely screw them finally getting pushed back. Don’t try and tell me about the IT or administrative staff either; if you’re just the Don’s chef, you’re still working for the mob.
I suppose people can just think of this as payback for all of the BS pushed by these investment banks and their analysts back in the .com bust; every one of these investment banks knew damn well that most of those .com company business plans were total BS, but who was pushing and hyping them? Yep, you got it, The same smart guys at LEH that are now out on the street. They’re going to find it’s a cruel world out there, and the bad news is that some of those same people they were ripping off are now the hiring managers at the firms where they’re going to try and find work.
@200 exactly. These idiots were pushing bullshit for the longest time and doing a lot of harm to the economy. Now it’s time to own up to it like a man. Enjoy the permanent vacation.
I’m thankful for Lehman, shorts and puts on financials this week have completely erased my 401k loses from earlier in the year. Let me know where you idiots land, I’ll be sure to short them too.
@195: By the way, no offense about the earlier comment about not having the initiative and working at some horrid desk in a place like LEH – that sort of came out the wrong way, especially considering your spouse is actually working at LEH. I’ve been in that same situation before, so I know how it goes and I was speaking purely from an empathetic point of view, I just used harder words than I should have. Sorry about that…
What I meant to say was simply that you can take a look around, at all of the people working at these places, and realize that not one of them will be your competition if you try and start something on your own… that’s an awful lot of people to not have to worry about competing with :-)
@202 I understand.
Have been wracking brain trying to think of something he could do, or at least consider, in a different arena. Hard to think creatively when he’s been in this industry for a quarter of a century. Ideas welcome! (That is to say, ideas welcome from people like you, no smart a** suggestions from some of the others please, I’m really not in the mood.)
@203: (I posted 202 and 191)
Have you considered just getting out while you’re ahead and bailing out of NYC completely? If you own a house out there, and have been reasonably careful with your finances, you can go a long way in other parts of the country on a small amount of money. $100K goes a long way in a place like NV or TN, and if you watch your burn rate you can spend a couple of years trying to get a small business going and still not really be out much money relative to what you’re probably making in NY…
I know a lot of people can’t do that, because they have a lot of family in one place, or their kids are in school, or whatever, but if you need to break out of a bleak situation sometimes it helps to deliberately turn your whole world upside down. Sure, it might be a total disaster, it could also be the best thing you’ve ever done in your life, who knows?
@204 I have considered it, but don’t think he’d go for it. Family, including widowed mom, plus all of our friends… we are from here (me NY, he NJ).
Have been mostly careful with $ b/c I knew it would end one day but didn’t think it would be so fast and so ugly. So we can get by for a while as long as bond market holds up (do I need to worry about that too?!), plus I work p/t as well (& hopefully that is still intact).
Well, I guess after the shock wears off, I’ll approach him with this as an option…or maybe he’ll get a divine inspiration for a new career.
Thanks for listening. You are a nice person. Have a good rest of the night and hopefully a good tomorrow.
Notwithstanding what some of you may think about Lehman’s business practices in recent years, the demise of this 158 year American franchise will not benefit Americans.
Indeed the excesses of Wall Street have been an embarrassment, as have the excesses of Main Street since the beginning of the decade. But make no mistake, the demise of powerful American institutions such as Lehman will propel long ripples of damage through our society, and will reach deep into our future, affecting even our childrens’ economic prospects.
Let no American wish for the demise of Lehman Brothers. Instead we should cover our LEH shorts, and hope for a miracle.
Georgest98
@184; see 170. That’s a big NO – they’ll be lucky to pull their personal belongings out of the place.
What a disaster.
To all the bashers – if you want to bash Fuld, fine…but if you’re taking joy in the workforce getting turned out on a Sunday with no severance pay, bonused stock options worth $0.00, and then being unemployed going into this meltdown, then keep you d*** mouths shut…go post on yahoo…
@207 I second that! best wishes to lehman employees & hope the Ch 11 – reorg. doesnt lead to liquidation.
I don’t understand why people automatically disregard the innocent workers. This sort of mess is caused by greed & a few. There are many employees that have worked hard & haven’t been to the hamptons, no black car services, e.g. myself, who worked there while going to school to support my education. So, shut it & be respectful.
Good the bad times will show up the feminists for what they are, umm the price of a HJ might go down
Short LEH! O lordy lord! The joy of being right is just plain joyous.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of douchebags.
See ya around the trash-can fire boys, uhhh, except I won’t be there. I’ll be spending my windfall from short LEH.
Pour a little liquor for the bros…
That was a great firm… I can’t believe this. To those of you gloating… please do remember – Karma is a mother******
- 646Hedgie
204 You really think things are better outside NY? Not my experience. No jobs out there, which is why the houses are so cheep.
You can Live off your New york money for a long time depending where you go. yes no great restaurants and not as much earnings potential. But work Nyc hard and you may be surprised. I got stuck in atlanta for 2 years and it worked out
The only reason I care about Leham is I want to know what is going to happen to their Treasury and US Credit Index. Call me selfish, but I only care about those two things. Let the Dow fall 5,000 points!
Let’s impeach George Bush now! I don’t care if he only has a few months left. He started this and he should pay dearly!
@208 & 209…Thank you…
signed, 207.
I guess the ex Goldman Sacks Tresury Secetary only has a few more banks to kill before he goes back to Goldman Sacks after Bush leaves office.
How convienent!
So who is next, not Goldman Sacks