The Fed and Lehman Brothers: Setting the Record Straight on a Financial Disaster (Studies in Macroeconomic History)

The bankruptcy of the investment bank Lehman Brothers was the pivotal event of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. Ever since the bankruptcy, there has been heated debate about why the Federal Reserve did not rescue Lehman in the same way it rescued other financial institutions, such as Bear Stearns and AIG. The Fed's leaders from that time, especially former Chairman Ben Bernanke, have strongly asserted that they lacked the legal authority to save Lehman because it did not have adequate collateral for the loan it needed to survive. Based on a meticulous four-year study of the Lehman case, The Fed and Lehman Brothers debunks the official narrative of the crisis. It shows that in reality, the Fed could have rescued Lehman but officials chose not to because of political pressures and because they underestimated the damage that the bankruptcy would do to the economy. The compelling story of the Lehman collapse will interest anyone who cares about what caused the financial crisis, whether the leaders of the Federal Reserve have given accurate accounts of their actions, and how the Fed can prevent future financial disasters.

• Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
• American Default: The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court, and the Battle over Gold
• Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and Its Lessons
• A Crisis of Beliefs: Investor Psychology and Financial Fragility
• Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts, and Bailouts at Citi
• Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
• EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts
• Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises
• Unelected Power: The Quest for Legitimacy in Central Banking and the Regulatory State
• Big Debt Crises