The South African Civil Society Information Service

Joseph Stiglitz on the Fall of Lehman Brothers
9 Oct 2008

The reason Lehman Brothers went down is twofold, says Joseph Stiglitz. Not only were their assets bad, but their products were also very non-transparent. The company simply engaged in a great deal of accounting gimmickry and lost people's trust.

Financial markets are based on trust says Stiglitz, and what happened with Lehman Brothers is a breakdown of trust. No one wanted to turn their money over to helping Lehman Brothers because they didn't know what Lehman's assets were worth.

Read more articles tagged with: global financial crisis, Lehman Brothers, Joseph Stiglitz, economic justice, capitalism.

You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/67.19.