Europe pays price

摘要

In Europe, the situation unfolded slowly, as bankers and leaders first said the continent was immune to Anglo-American excess. London swaps dealers were called into the office on the weekend of the Lehman implosion to make sure all of their obligations were met and went home two hours later. Officially, they said everything was fine, but observers told a different story. "It's impossible to match up all the counterparties in a weekend, or even a week or a month," said one veteran swaps dealer. "I've worked on cases where you have to figure out who owes what to whom after a small bank goes under, that takes weeks.