The Talk
The September 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is the most-cited event of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1920’s. Lehman’s bankruptcy filing with a Balance Sheet of over 600 Billion Dollars was not just the biggest ever, but roughly 10 times the size of the previous record set infamously a few years earlier (Enron in 2001).
This seismic event has been the subject of many articles, books and movies, but the talk will provide a fresh perspective, covering a lot of new ground – such as the little-known actions and events that occurred years before the collapse which contributed significantly to the final outcome. The corporate culture and the key players – and how they responded as the crisis unfolded – will be brought to life through the speaker’s personal experience and interactions. An epilogue will consider how the event changed the world of banking and finance, as well as the public discourse on the relationship between Capitalism and Democracy. Though it is an event that lingers in the public memory for various reasons, the human dimension was perhaps the most interesting of all – and this talk traced the lives and paths of some of the key players after the collapse.