Lehman Moment
Lehman Brothers was a financial firm that collapsed quickly in 2008; its September 2008 bankruptcy filing created a world financial panic. The term “Lehman moment” (or “Lehman Brothers moment”), meaning a time of financial disaster, has been cited in print since at least December 15, 2008. In 2011, the financially troubled nation of Greece was said to have faced a “Lehman moment.”
Wikipedia: Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker symbol LEH) (pronounced /ˈliːmən/) was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch), doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading (especially U.S. Treasury securities), market research, investment management, private equity, and private banking.
On September 15, 2008, the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following the massive exodus of most of its clients, drastic losses in its stock, and devaluation of its assets by credit rating agencies. The filing marked the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, and is thought to have played a major role in the unfolding of the late-2000s global financial crisis. The following day, Barclays announced its agreement to purchase, subject to regulatory approval, Lehman’s North American investment-banking and trading divisions along with its New York headquarters building. On September 20, 2008, a revised version of that agreement was approved by US Bankruptcy Court Judge James M. Peck. The next week, Nomura Holdings announced that it would acquire Lehman Brothers’ franchise in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, as well as Lehman Brothers’ investment banking and equities businesses in Europe and the Middle East. The deal became effective on 13 October 2008.
Pittsburgh (PA) Tribune-Review
Election delivers signals to buy, sell
By Eric Heyl, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, November 7, 2008
(...)
DUMP. ABSOLUTELY DUMP. SERIOUSLY.
Former U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods. Before her defeat by Democrat Jason Altmire in 2006, Hart supported President Bush’s agenda 92 percent of the time during her six years in the House, according to Congressional Quarterly.
With Bush’s approval ratings lower than that of abscesses and influenza, Hart nonetheless attempted to reclaim her seat this year. Unsurprisingly, she was trounced in what could be accurately described as her Lehman Brothers moment.
Reuters
METALS INSIDER: Real economy reaches its ‘Lehman Moment’
Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:50pm IST
By Andy Home LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. authorities’ decision not to rescue investment bank Lehman Brothers in September is now widely viewed as precipitating the meltdown in financial markets.
BBC News
Page last updated at 17:16 GMT, Monday, 8 June 2009 18:16 UK
Economy on the edge
(...)
Pinpointing the demise of Lehman Brothers as the trigger for dramatic fears of a global systemic collapse is a view shared by Lawrence Summers, director of President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council.
“Certainly there was no moment more decisive than the Lehman moment and its aftermath.”
BBC News
3 May 2010 Last updated at 18:14 ET
Is Greek crisis at turning point?
At the end of each month, BBC World News business presenter Jamie Robertson looks at the world’s major stock markets. This month he considers the crisis in Greece.
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One trader confessed afterwards he had had a “Lehman’s moment”, while pointing out that Lehman’s collapsed - Greece did not.
The Economist
Fear returns
Governments were the solution to the economic crisis. Now they are the problem
May 27th 2010
IT’S not quite a Lehman moment, but financial markets are more anxious today than at any time since the global recovery took hold almost a year ago.
New York (NY) Times
Avoiding Greece’s Lehman Moment
By HUGO DIXON and NEIL UNMACK
Published: May 9, 2011
Restructuring Greece’s debt is both desirable and inevitable, despite insistence from European Union officials over the weekend that the idea is off the table. But restructuring could also cause mayhem throughout the euro zone — and global markets. Indeed, many investors and policy makers speak about a possible “Lehman moment” — a shock so severe that it would cause banking crises and domino bankruptcies throughout Europe.
THe Big Picture
Jackie Moon’s Lehman Moment
By Global Macro Monitor - June 13th, 2011, 10:30PM
We love allegories. The Wizard of Oz was, many believed, an allegory of the political and economic times of the 1890s.
Bloomberg
Europe’s ‘Lehman Moment’ Looms as Greek Debt Unravels Markets: Euro Credit
By Mark Gilbert and Liz Capo McCormick - Jun 16, 2011 5:29 AM ET
The European Union’s failure to contain the Greek debt crisis is sending fresh shockwaves through currencies, money markets, equities and derivatives.
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The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008 caused credit markets worldwide to freeze as investors fled all but the safest government debt.
“The probability of a eurozone Lehman moment is increasing,” said Neil Mackinnon, an economist at VTB Capital in London and a former U.K. Treasury official.
optionMONSTER
June 16, 2011 Thu 7:42 AM CT
Cramer: Another Lehman moment?
Jim Cramer
So, after all of that wrangling, after all of that “too big to fail” jibber-jabber, we are already two years later talking about another Lehman moment? Does anyone see the irony?