Lehman Employees Feeling the Pain

Firm seeks to calm fears of another Bear Stearns disaster

(NEWSER) - Lehman Brothers is selling $3 billion in new shares to allay fears after its stock dropped 42% this year, Bloomberg reports. "We still maintain that we don't need capital, but we've realized that perception is the dominant issue in today's markets,'' said CFO Erin Callan. Lehman fell up to 48% this month on rumors that it lacked cash and faced a Bear Stearns-style meltdown. More»

James Stewart on the week that Lehman failed, and meltdown loomed

(NEWSER) - James Stewart’s reconstruction of the 8 nail-biting days, a year ago, in which the federal government stepped in to stop the collapse of the world financial system—published in the New Yorker this week, just as Fed chief Ben Bernanke was declaring the recession officially over—makes riveting, tense reading. “I don’t think I can take another day of this,” one banker says getting out of the Goldman Sachs car on Day 4. “You’re getting out of a Mercedes to go to the New York Federal Reserve,” snaps Bernanke. “You’re not getting out of a Higgins Boat on Omaha Beach.” Not quite, at least. More»

(NEWSER) - The turmoil on Wall Street has left fewer analysts covering companies of all sizes, the Journal reports, leaving smaller operations struggling to connect with investors. Since September, there have been more than 2,200 instances of analysts formally dropping coverage—nearly a quarter of all research. That plunge has been accelerated because of the demise of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, both major analysis purveyors. More»

Drop-off in corporate giving leaves groups scrambling

(NEWSER) - Charities used to getting much of their money from major corporations and private foundations are feeling the economic downturn, the Wall Street Journal reports. Bill Gates’ foundation plans to give fewer grants next year, and other large donors are honoring existing pledges but refusing to make new ones. “You can’t give what you haven’t got,” said AIG’s former CEO, a major donor. More»

But if Congress doesn't pass Treasury's bailout, he'll 'get killed'

(NEWSER) - Billionaire Warren Buffett has been getting a lot of calls lately from struggling Wall Street firms looking for a savior, from Bear Stearns to Lehman Brothers to AIG. He’s turned them all down, the Wall Street Journal reports, but when Goldman Sachs called Tuesday, the Oracle of Omaha ponied up $5 billion within hours, on a gut feeling that Goldman was a survivor. "I didn't see a book," he says, "I just made a judgment." More»