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The 2008 Financial Crisis: Examining the Causes of Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy
By Roy (Jung-hun) Baeck, VI Form
The 2008 Financial Crisis: Examining the Causes of Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy
Editor’s Note: This paper was completed as a part of the History Research Fellowship, a one-semester course available to sixth form students.
Student-Submitted Note: As part of the History Research Fellowship, I conducted research on the history of financial and housing regulations up to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the impact it made to one of the Wall Street firms, Lehman Brothers, and more.
The following are headlines from The New York Times between September 10 and September 15, 2008.
A Battered Lehman Fights for Survival
Pressure grows on Lehman as shares slide again
Shares Continue Decline as Lehman Looks for Buyer
U.S. demands that Wall Street save Lehman
Lehman’s Fate Is in Doubt as Barclays Pulls Out of Talks
Lehman in Bankruptcy; Merrill to Be Sold; A.I.G. Struggles
On September 15, 2008, the Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers filed for the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States. At a market value of nearly $46 billion at its peak, the firm’s glory ended with $613 billion of debt and over 25,000 unemployed people. To this day, historians consider the collapse of Lehman Brothers as the turning point of the 2008 financial crisis, causing turmoil in the already struggling United States and eventually worldwide.
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, considered the centerpiece of the crumpled US financial market, illustrates the United States government’s poor effort to maintain a sustainable economy and a successful financial sector. A history of excessive emphasis on homeownership and unreasonably extensive housing policies resulted in the US housing market bubble. The bubble, integrated with the lack of regulations on financial derivatives and Wall Street’s substantial firms making reckless investments in the securities market, created the most impactful market crash of the 21st century.
(more…)Pursuing My Passion for Finance with the Help of The Class of 1968 V Form Grant
By Kanav Sahani, Class of 2023
Pursuing My Passion for Finance with the Help of The Class of 1968 V Form Grant
Editor’s Note: This project was made possible with the support of the Class of 1968 V Form Fellowship. At their 25th reunion, the Class of 1968 created a fund to provide grants to V Form students for independent study during the school year or, more commonly, during the summer between V and VI Forms. Their intent in establishing this fund was to reward independent thinking, ingenuity, and planning and to encourage the student in exploring non-traditional fields of inquiry or using non-traditional methods of investigation.
Student-Submitted Note: I received the Class of 1968 V form grant so that I could attend a summer program at Bentley University called Wall Street 101.
I chose to attend the Wall Street 101 course at Bentley University because it provided me with a unique opportunity to pursue my passion for finance and experience firsthand the dynamic environment of a real actual trading room, unlike any other program available today.
I developed a keen interest in finance after I watched a Youtube video featuring the renowned Warren Buffett. In the video, Buffet recommended reading The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Since then, I have enhanced my financial knowledge through books, professionals, internships, Youtube videos, and courses at Wharton and Georgetown. I wanted to share my knowledge, and to do so, I founded the finance club at my former school, Fay, and took on a leadership role in the finance club at St. Mark’s, known as SM Finance. The courses at Bentley taught me three topics that my previous research had not to fully elucidated: Stock Market & Investment Research, Portfolio Management, and Macroeconomy and Financial Markets. I plan to become an investment banker, and this course gave me an overview of all the needed knowledge.
My daily schedule involved attending a class with a professor who delivered us a unique lesson every day, listening to watching a guest speaker who shared valuable insights on finance-related topics, and collaborating with my group on our capstone project.
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