Browsing Through Lehman Emails

My current favorite Lehman email released for yesterday's hearing is this one. I'm not sure whether I'm more amused by the "huge brand" comment, or the "kill the bad hfunds" thing. (Click emails to enlarge.)

I'm also fond of this Lehman email, where the company's fine and upstanding executives plot to use a capital raise to buy back stock and hurt Lehman short-seller David Einhorn. Nice to see they have such productive capital uses in mind.

Comments

[mahony:]

The hubris is astounding...The funniest part though is that Fuld can sit in front of Congress and Waxman can huff and puff all he wants. The net result is hot air (Waxman) and a still rich CEO (more hot air...ooops sorry, I screwed up)

2008 Oct 07 01:04 PM

[debtacid:]

Anyone know where I can get a Dick Fuld mask for Halloween? Here is where you can get Ben & Hank masks:

benandhank.com/

2008 Oct 07 02:15 PM

[the ali:]

I think after reading all the articles in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers and the hearings on Capitol Hill on 10/6, Dick Fuld isn't to blame as much as everybody is crying. Sure there is a blameworthy party here, but grow the insight to see this is more the government's problem of regulation and oversight, than it is Dick Fuld's. He of course has some blame (over investing in toxic mortgages, but he wasn't the only to do this), but his history with the company and his loyalty shouldn't be questioned. All of this sounds soo fishy, the way Lehman didn't get any government assistance in a deal or in loosening the regulations to convert Lehman into a bank holding company. However, AIG was saved in turn saving Goldman $20 billion in their investments in the failed company. Henry Paulsen was is the treasury secretary in all of this, and just as AIG and Goldman's shares start to go down after the Lehman BK (some say is due to naked shortselling) different measures were taken than with Lehman and those two companies are still around to tell their tale. Not only that, a former Goldman executive in Paulsens cabinet will be overlooking the $700billion from the bailout.

I seriously think people need to grow up, understand business a little bit, and really start looking at big brother for allowing a lot of this to go on. For gods sake, Paulsen and Bernacke can be viewed in interviews stating the exact opposite to what was really going on in our economy as late as this summer. What kind of accountability is that? I mean if you wrote a book on economics, shouldn't you be qualified to give advice on it? Maybe he didn't focus on economies of scale when he wrote it.......

Dick Fuld lost $800 million in his stock options and is worth around $100 million, which is down from the $1 billion he used to be worth. He took the company from the small investment bank it used to be after the American Express spin off to a respected bulge bracket firm. He increased the companies profits, created jobs, and created shareholder value for six of his seven years in office.

I understand how crippled the employees of x-Lehman are. All of your life savings lost in a company you bled for. However, Dick Fuld, who bled nothing but green for his entire working career, lost $800 million in the Lehman Bros stock, and his net worth got decimated from $1 billion to $100 million. Now that is more than any one family needs to live, I agree. But for the his years of service, his accomplishments for the company and its employees, the culture he helped create and maintain, was all worth is compensation. In fact, the fact that he went from $1 billion to $100 million, is fact that he lost as much as anybody else, but he isn't by any means in the same situation as other Lehman employees. But to say he drove the company into the ground, is just plain dumb. He obviously had a stake in the game. Obvious by the NY Times article about the collapse of Lehman, he was trying a lot of strategies as far back as 2006 to turn the situation of the company (over investment in toxic mortgages and overly leveraged) around and gain some liquidity.

I would like for any of you that think you could have done a better job, to really analyze what you might be thinking. First off, this is after the fact, and saying you could do things differently than Dick did isn't going to prove anything. The stress of the position of CEO would probably deter many of you from the job alone, and the other half that would think you could hack it, would probably be out within a week if given that opportunity.

Sure Dick Fuld has blame in this game. However, saying he is a greedy Wall Street crook just because you can voice you opinions after the fact, when you probably didn't even know of many of the underlying problems of our economy, our credit markets, or with the financial industry (except for the words "subprime crisis" which were being taunted on the news for the last year or so), is just a bandwagon move. If you really want to feel special, ask for government accountability across the board. The situation surrounding the BK of Lehman and the bailout and assistance of other companies to stay afloat in similar circumstances, was fishy at best.

I am not trying to be condescending, however the average person who is crying, only cries after the fact. That has been the average American's downfall in the last 8 years with Bush. You didnt have to vote for him twice. Now we have an unedcuated Governor of Alaska (basically the same population as San Bernadino, CA) that could possibly become VP because she doesn't sound smart, she won't be a good VP because she really has no experience even close to that caliber of work, but hey she is a "Washington Outsider" and sounds like a normal person. Crying after the fact wont get you far, but seems to be the voice of the people. Why is the government going to care about something its citizens don't care about? Sure you care about it now, and now the government will look like it is doing something meaningful. Oh, how looks are deceiving.

2008 Oct 07 05:15 PM

[Vikram Saxena:]

I saw a graphic after that fateful weekend:
DIck Fuld: Long Term Investor
John Thain: Trader

I wish Lehman had injected some fresh blood into its Board or Senior Management so that they could see how bad things were becoming. At times of extreme stress, long term insiders can not detach themselves from the past, and internalize the implication of the present.

Fuld never understood how the game had changed with hedge funds, no uptick rule, blatant naked-shorting, and trend following computerized trading severely exaggerating any directional move in a nervous market.

2008 Oct 09 09:16 PM