NEVER TOO BIG TO JAIL

摘要

No one knows what would actually happen if any of the 'too big to fail' banking and investment giants were actually allowed to do just that. The untested perception is that a destructive contagion would spread beyond the immediate circle of investors and depositors and engulf the financial community in a wave of institutional panic that could destabilise the world economy. Yet when the US authorities allowed Lehman Brothers to lapse into ignominious bankruptcy in September 2008 there was no contagion, mainly because counterparty institutions managed to disentangle themselves from Lehman's precarious derivative positions.