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Lehman CEO: Why Weren’t We Bailed Out?

The House oversight committee has spent the day unloading on Lehman Bros. CEO Richard Fuld -- his $480 million in compensation over the past eight years, his

Jul 31, 202064.3K Shares1.6M Views
The House oversight committee has spent the dayunloading on Lehman Bros. CEO Richard Fuld — his $480 million in compensation over the past eight years, his investment bank’s unprecedented leveraging of mortgage assets, his misleading of Lehman shareholders up to the day the company declared bankruptcy and the fate of 25,000 Lehman employees.
Fuld has deflected questions on whether he’s unfair, unethical and has committed fraud. He has spoken deliberately, demonstrated little passion and largely stonewalled lawmaker’s questions as if he were a member of the Bush administration’s Justice Dept. Until Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asked Fuld why the government bailed out AIG but didn’t bail out Lehman.
Fuld became animated: “I do not know why we were the only one.”
He discussed how the Treasury Dept. bailed out fellow investment bank Bear Stearns in March, and Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch the week Lehman declared bankruptcy.
He also encouraged questions from Welch and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) that AIG was bailed out because Goldman Sachs, where Paulson was formerly CEO, had a reported $20-billion tie to the insurance giant.
With the hearing winding down, Fuld kept saying, “I wake up every single night thinking what I could have done differently. This is a pain that will stay with me the rest of my life.”
On whether the Treasury Dept. should have bailed out Lehman, the committee actually seems in agreement with Fuld.
Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said in his opening statement: “Many experts think Lehman’s fall triggered the credit freeze that is choking the economy and made the $700 billion rescue necessary.”
The committee holds a hearing tomorrow on AIG. Will the committee push the line of questioning encouraged by Fuld– that AIG was bailed out, and Lehman Bros. wasn’t, because that was the scenario most beneficial to Goldman Sachs, a rival investment bank to Lehman?
No one is suggesting that Paulson was merely making decisions based on Goldman Sach’s best interests. But the oversight committee’s work may discover that it was at least a factor.
Paula M. Graham

Paula M. Graham

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