Europe: eleven trillion euros of debt ... Driving up the cost of borrowing for countries in trouble. ibid.
New York 2010 Jon Corzine: M F Global. Its business was brokerage ... Risk: MF Global would start taking risks itself in the market. ibid.
The story of how a London team of J P Morgan traders lost six billion dollars last year shows how even a well-run bank can take ever more complex and risky gambles. ibid.
From the late 1990s banks lent around a trillion dollars to Americans on low incomes to buy houses. ibid.
In 2008 the financial crash hit the world like a natural disaster. ibid.
Nothing on this scale had been predicted by Value at Risk. Nearly three trillion dollars was lost. ibid.
Synthetic derivatives: one of the biggest bets the world has ever seen. ibid.
One of the biggest financial bankruptcies since the crash: M F Global. ibid.
J P Morgan had little choice but to sell off the Whale Trades at a huge loss. ibid.
Over the decades banks had come to think of their customers as a commodity. Five years ago the banks brought the country to its knees. Now they are provoking more accusations that they’ve destroyed businesses and ruined lives. Bankers III: Payback Time
Tens of thousands of others have been persuaded by the banks to sign up for interest rate swaps. ibid.
Mis-selling has been going on for years. ibid.
They placed a ruthless pursuit of profit at the heart of their business model. ibid.
Banks became sales machines. ibid.
Payment Protection Insurance ... millions of PPI policies were mis-sold. ibid.
A titan of Wall Street prepares to address his staff in New York, London and around the world. He wants to put an end to rumours the firm is in trouble. Crisis? What crisis? Twelve weeks later the bank went bust. It was the biggest bankruptcy in history. The Fall of Lehman Brothers, Youtube
The weekend that changed the world. ibid.
For months Wall Street had been worried about Lehman’s because of the bank’s massive property investments. ibid.
When the bank chiefs assembled that Friday evening it was clear from the start that there would be little sympathy from the government. ibid.
Few ever imagined that America’s fourth largest investment bank would fall so far and so fast. ibid.
Dick Fuld was to become the longest serving chief executive on Wall Street. ibid.
Dick Fuld also had an insatiable appetite for profits. ibid.
He had not been invited to the crisis meeting of chief executives. ibid.
Bank of America announced it had bought Merrill Lynch for fifty billion dollars. ibid.
The so-called subprime mortgage scandal was born. ibid.
The real money for Wall Street banks came not from selling mortgages to home owners but from selling bundles of these loans among themselves and other institutional investments. ibid.
It [Lehman’s] borrowed more and more money ... It’s called leverage. ibid.
Repossession rocketed and house prices slumped. ibid.
At their peak Lehman’s shares were worth eighty-five dollars each; they were now worth three cents. ibid.
Lehman’s was the catalyst for the crash in 2008. ibid.
Have you taken a large home loan? Or did you put your savings in stocks, mutual funds or bonds? If not, you can relax. But all of us who did are living on borrowed time. This is the story of the greatest financial crisis of our time: the one that is on its way. Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis, 2010; viz also Johan Norberg, Financial Fiasco
In 2003 it [interest rates] was cut all the way to 1%. ibid.
Greenspan argued that the Fed should never remove the punch bowl. But rather start refilling it when the party started to peter out. And if things went bad, the Fed would clean up the mess and tend to the hangover. ibid.
The big banks dared to make riskier loans because they had started repackaging loans and selling them to others as securities. ibid.
The rating agencies that rate securities gave the mortgage-backed bonds their highest rating ... The rating agencies were being paid by the sellers of securities. ibid.
The difference is that this bubble is much bigger. ibid.
Even banks who don’t want the money will be forced to take it, so that the public won’t know which banks are on the brink of collapse. ibid.
Congress approves the biggest financial bail-out in history: $700 billion. ibid.
President Bush gives billions of dollars to General Motors and Chrysler. ibid.
On February 7th 2009 Obama approves a stimulus package worth $787 billion; with the Bush stimulus package from the year before US politicians have now spent close to $1 trillion to stimulate the US economy. ibid.
We have been saved from the consequences of one burst bubble by inflating a hundred new ones all around the world. ibid.
Bush almost racked up more US debt that all presidents before him combined. ibid.
Lehman Brothers is a hell of a lot bigger than Bear Stearns. The market is terrified. Yeah, but the Bear bail out ... The very large Bear Stearns’ assistance package created in expectation, false accounting and direct intervention from you. Too Big to Fail 2011 starring William Hurt & James Woods & Cynthia Nixon & Paul Giamatti & Edward Asner & Bill Crudup & Matthew Madine & Michael O'Keefe et al, director Curtis Hanson, Jim Wilkinson to Hank Paulson
All I can do is call Warren Buffett. ibid. Hank Paulson
There’s going to be a run on this bank. ibid. Lehman board meeting
The amount of debt your country carries is a terrible vulnerability. ibid. Chinese to Paulson
Geithner: You want me to allow them to raise their leverage so they can buy a bank that’s about to fail because it was over-leveraged?
Paulson: You have a better idea? ibid. business breakfast
We got a real problem here. Mr Flowers, my people tell me you are the man to talk to. We’ve got a real problem here. It looks very much like we are about to run out of cash. ibid. Robert Willumstad, CEO AIG
The closer they get to Lehman the more it looks like a toxic waste dump. ibid. Paulson to Geithner
Got anybody at Treasury who wasn’t at Goldman? ibid. Christopher Cox, SEC chairman
We are not bailing out Lehman. ibid. Paulson
Monday morning Lehman will no longer be able to honour its obligations. ibid. Paulson to meeting of banksters
Seventy fucking billion and no collateral. ibid. Geithner to Paulson
The Federal Government is snaking my deal? ibid. Dick Fuld
Lehman’s gone. ibid. Paulson to wife
Business in America’s going to be shutting down. ibid. Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric
Too big to fail? Well here it is. ibid. Paulson
What do I say when they ask me why it wasn’t regulated? ibid. press relations woman
We need an announcement tonight to calm the market; we need legislation next week. ibid. Paulson
Buying toxic assets is not going to work. ibid.
How do you get a healthy bank to accept a capital injection? ibid.
They almost bring down the US economy as we know it, but we can’t put restrictions on $125 billion? ibid. press woman
Following the passage of TARP banks made fewer loans and markets continued to tumble. Unemployment rose to over 10% and millions of families lost their homes to foreclosure. ibid. caption
In 2010 compensation on Wall Street rose to a record $135 billion. Ten banks now hold 77% of all US bank assets. They have been declared too big to fail. ibid.