Loser Lehmans through the Looking Glass.....

Noticing in the news, it's one year ago today that Lehman Bros. of Wall St. went bust - or was allowed to go bust by the US Government as a warning to other 'naughty' bankers.

After the 'Greed is Good' or 'God', the old revered and venerated saying in Wall Street, over the past couple of decades.

A sorry tale and parable of the 'Emperor's new clothes' in a banking guise; where arrogance, avarice, stupidity, and 'winning the lottery' style banking payouts, by bankers playing a lottery or casino type banking game all ended in tears!..... For the ordinary person and taxpayers in the U.S. and now the world.

With thanks to vault 45.com for the picture.

A financial 'pass the parcel' game of CDO's, MBS and SIV's, etc. etc. and other esoteric investment packages went on, which even they didn't understand! And the implications if they went wrong.
I think their MBA's are pretty worthless as well now!
Unfortunately, the money 'music' stopped and Lehmans were left holding the toxic parcel of debt! which is also slowly poisoning the other financial players in the room.

As the 'sage of Omaha' once said, "Derivatives and other complex financial packages are  weapons of mass financial destruction", or words to that effect.... "And when the financial tide goes out, we'll see which bathers are swimming without any trunks on!!"
In Lehman's case they were completely stark naked, and someone had also stolen their clothes and their Speedo's (for good measure) left on the beach!

Beware of false booms from prophets - I wonder if that includes me?!
Is this the end of 'Casino banking' or capitalism?

Okay, I know that you're thinking, "So how does this affect the average Joe or Joanna Blogs in the street?" Well if you have a house, watch the prices fall, and if you still have a job, watch out! The unemployed queues at the job centre are eagerly looking for new recruits!
All you can do is laugh at the stupidity of it all, and in the face of adversity.