Lehman's Botched Bankruptcy

The failure of Lehman Brothers is now considered by most to be Wall Street's reckoning day. So how bad, exactly, was it? According to The Wall Street Journal, the chaotic bankruptcy of Lehman destroyed up to $75 billion in value, and a more organized proceeding could have saved tens of billions of dollars. While it's still too early to tell how much Lehman's creditors will recover, they have asserted in court filings that they are owed about $200 billion, while the bond market projects a recovery of $20 billion. "While I have no position on whether or not the federal government should have provided further assistance to Lehman, once the decision was made not to provide further assistance, an orderly wind-down plan should have been pursued. It was an unconscionable waste of value," said Lehman's chief restructuring officer.