The Last Days of Lehman Brothers

The Last Days of Lehman Brothers is a British television film, first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD on Wednesday 9 September 2009. Filmed in London, it was written by Craig Warner and directed by Michael Samuels. It was shown as part of the BBC's "Aftershock" season, a selection of programmes marking the first anniversary of the collapse of the American investment bank Lehman Brothers. It featured James Cromwell, Ben Daniels, Corey Johnson, Michael Landes and James Bolam. Synopsis The Last Days of Lehman Brothers summarizes the events that occurred over the weekend preceding Monday, 15 September 2008, when Lehman declared bankruptcy. Some of the story is narrated by the fictional character "Zach", a Lehman employee often taking orders directly from Dick Fuld. Zach often breaks the Fourth wall, talking directly to the viewer. Investment bank Lehman Brothers is in trouble after a turbulent six months in which their real estate investments have lost billions of dollars, causing steep drops in Lehman's stock. Lehman's boss, Dick Fuld (Corey Johnson), who brought the firm through other crises, is himself growing desperate. Fuld's plan to spin off the company's bad assets into a separate company does not satisfy investors, and Lehman stock drops by 75% in one week. Fuld's only remaining solution is to have Lehman acquired. Both Bank of America and Barclays are interested in purchasing the firm but are dissuaded because so much of Lehman's assets are "toxic" (worthless). Lehman's problems have put the US government in a delicate position. The collapse of a firm of Lehman's size would have catastrophic economic repercussions well beyond the firm itself. Because there is no political support for a government bailout of the firm, the government turns to Lehman's competitors for help. Late on the afternoon of 12 September, a Friday, the leaders of the top investment banks on Wall Street, Lehman's competitors, are summoned to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson warns the incredulous group that Lehman is not too big to fail and that there will be no bailout using public money. Instead, Paulson cajoles the bank heads to work out a joint plan among themselves to relieve Lehman of its toxic assets, warning them that the steep price they would pay to save Lehman would be easily outweighed by the cost of its failure. He also intimidates the bank heads by reminding them that they too will soon need help.