Lehman

[notyoueither]

Hong Kong down 6% so far.

Is tomorrow Tuesday? Is this September?

[Asher]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4faa75b0-8387-11dd-907e-000077b07658.html

Shocked Lehman staff told to 'move on'

By Robert Cookson, Salamander Davoudi, Chris Hughes, Brooke Masters, Daniel Pimlott, Lina Saigol, Kiran Stacey and James Wilson

Published: September 16 2008 03:00 | Last updated: September 16 2008 03:00

The message delivered to shocked Lehman Brothers staff yesterday was simple and direct.

"It's over," announced Christian Meissner to a morning staff gathering just a week after being appointed to run Lehman Brothers in Europe. He told the staff to look for new work and "move on".

Staff had little choice but to follow suit in Lehman's offices around the globe as they came to terms with the reality of the vertiginous collapse of the 158-year-old institution, leaving workplaces with belongings hastily collected and their savings depleted.

The mantra of Lehman Brothers was to pay its staff in stock - some 30 per cent of the bank's equity was held by employees and many bonuses were paid in shares. Now those holdings are all but worthless.

Some staff were told not to expect a paycheque at the end of the month and that they might even be liable for expenses on their corporate credit cards.

In Lehman's London office, the bridgehead for the Wall Street firm's international expansion, many were evidently determined to minimise their status as creditors to the firm.

"Some have more than £100 on their pre-pay canteen cards, [so] they're buying hundreds of bars of chocolate, bags of roasted coffee and anything that's non-perishable," said one employee.

As New York woke up, tourists mingled with the media outside Lehman Brothers' headquarters near Times Square to watch employees exiting the collapsed bank.

Some staff maintained they were soldiering on until their bosses told them to stop. Ahab Eskaros, an Egyptian working in Lehman's prime brokerage division, said: "We're going to stay to do our jobs unless someone tells us otherwise."

Mr Eskaros, who has worked for the bank for eight years, said he had lost $40,000 to $50,000 that he had invested in the firm.

Others were more actively seeking employment. Recruiters were stationed at Canary Wharf coffee shops to collect curriculum vitae.

Some staff said they had been banned from sending e-mails, adding that BlackBerrys and mobile phones no longer worked.

"I've had people calling me from telephone boxes. In the old days you'd just pick up your Rolodex and you'd bugger off. Now everything in your life is with the company," said a former employee.

Some of Lehman's senior bankers are expected to set up independent advisory boutiques in the near future.

Staff outside Merrill Lynch's offices in the City of London voiced relief at the firm's rescue takeover by Bank of America.

"Thank God, just thank God this is not as bad as Lehman Brothers," said one. But another said: "We were next on the chopping board anyway, weren't we?"

[rmsharpe]

I only had three days until retirement too!

[notyoueither]

They were holding for a while, but there they go.

Hong Kong over 7% when lunch began to digest.

At what point does the Far East feed back into Europe and then into New York?

[GePap]

Most of the time there is some hueg drop in share prices the next day there seems to be a rally. This is probably just my perception and has little grounding in fact, but I expect there to be a rise in the index tommorrow, though the week as a whole might leave the markets lower on the close on friday than they closed today.

[notyoueither]

BBC World is reporting expectations of a drop to open things in Europe.

[Saras]

Originally posted by PLATO


Lots

It would basically cause a worldwide economic collapse if confidence were lost in US treasuries. That would be the end. There is no stronger entity than the full faith and credit of the US government.

Ahem... the CDS market thinks it's actually Germany.

[Kuciwalker]

**** this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091503312.html

Paulson would have a little bit more credibility if he'd said this BEFORE Bear Sterns and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

[One_more_turn]

AIG is next on the list. It needs at least $40 billion to survive. Otherwise, it will be history, too.

[Ecthy]

I love the economy going down. In your face, capitalist pigdogs!

[Saras]

Cheap assets to buy

[DanS]

To be clear, I don't mind profiting from the misery of others -- and enjoying the profit. Being a bear is a little ghoulish, but it's an honorable profession. As far as I'm concerned, this is just a process of "bringing out the dead" -- Lehman made bad decisions that resulted in the company's bankruptcy. The front line employees didn't necessarily make all of those bad decisions, but, in our economy, they enjoy the fruits of good decisions of others and bear the brunt of bad decisions of others.

That is quite another thing from enjoying the misery of others with no chance of personal gain. Why would you do that? Is it just to prove a point? That you're better than them? That's just sick and nonsensical besides.

[DanS]

Looks like Wall Street is going to open down, but not hugely so.

AIG looks close to being toast. It's tough to follow what is happening with AIG. Sort of looks like AIG is playing chicken with the gov't -- and playing the game poorly.

I wonder when the FDIC is going to shut down WaMu.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by DanS
That is quite another thing from enjoying the misery of others with no chance of personal gain. Why would you do that? Is it just to prove a point? That you're better than them? That's just sick and nonsensical besides.

Adapted, capitalist, social-darwinist people do that all the time. It's about time they are on the receiving end.

[Colonâ„¢]

CPI fell 0.1% in August. Nothing to get wild about but maybe sufficient excuse for the Fed to cut again.