Chaos on Wall Street

NY DAILY NEWS
Photo: The headquarters of Lehman Brothers on 6th Avenue.
(Nagle/Getty)

Monday, September 15th 2008

Lehman Brothers said it was headed for bankruptcy early Monday morning after marathon talks failed to come up with a plan to rescue the famed investment house, sending new shock waves through an already shaken Wall Street.

On a day that transformed the landscape of American finance, Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest brokerage firm, agreed to sell itself to Bank of America to stave off its own financial crisis.

The dramatic, late-night maneuvering rattled the global financial world.

A consortium of banks from the U.S. and abroad, working with government officials in New York, announced a stunning $70 billion pool of funds to lend to troubled financial companies.

The unprecedented plan had a far-reaching aim: to prevent a worldwide panic on stock and other financial exchanges.

With Lehman filing for bankruptcy, “the risk of an immediate tsunami” is on the horizon for financial markets worldwide, said Bill Gross, chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.

The bleeding began Sunday night as futures that predict the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 300 points.

Asian stock markets fell sharply, the dollar plunged and gold rose, and investors sought safe havens for their money.

Read the whole story here.

2 thoughts on “Chaos on Wall Street”

  1. This meltdown should be labled the “Wharton Effect”

    Enabled by Graham-Bliley

    Blessed By Greenspan

    Perpetuated by the graduates of Wharton, overated and overstuffed.

    Sal M

  2. Everything affects everything else and in turn affects itself through feedback. So stop looking for that single ’cause’ – it doesn’t exist!

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