Reflections on Lehman Brothers' Failure

Four years ago today, Lehman Brothers failed.  A storied franchise with a more than 150 year history filed for bankruptcy protection.  A website, but nothing else, remains.

And some protection upper management received!  Through four years and Attorneys General from both political parties, no indictments have come against anyone at Lehman.  Nor has even a single word of apology come from anyone in upper management.

The failure of Lehman had much to do with freezing our banking system, and it may have helped doom Senator John McCain's Presidential chances.  The stock markets went into free fall, dropping to their lowest levels in over a decade.

What would Henry Lehman, a German Jew who emigrated to Montgomery, Alabama, and started a dry good business during the 1840s, have made of the tremendous rise and catastrophic fall of the firm his brothers moved to New York after Henry's untimely 1855 death?  As a family run commodities business, Lehman came to represent thrift, savings, and hard work.

Today "Lehman," like "Madoff," symbolizes failure -- and more than a hint of dishonesty.  Potential investors hoard cash, unwilling to trust our equities markets.

American capitalism will probably recover in time.  Real damage, however, has occurred, and meanwhile we wait in vain for an explanation or accountability.