Too Big to Fail [321]
Texaco trucks and Eastern Airlines jets: Stephen Labaton, “Bankruptcy Bar: Never So Solvent,” New York Times, April 1, 1990.
he billed clients nearly $1,000 an hour: Jonathan D. Glater, “The Man Who Is Unwinding Lehman Brothers,” New York Times, December 14, 2008.
He had grown up in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn: Ibid.; Labaton, “Bankruptcy Bar,” New York Times.
“Bankruptcy,” he once said, “is like dancing”: Ibid.
“With a beleaguered Lehman:” Jessica Papini, “Possible Govt Backstop for Lehman Buy Has Two Prior Models,” Dow Jones, September 11, 2008.
“Federal officials currently”: Efrati, “Greenberg Settles,” Wall Street Journal.
“But while the Treasury Department”: Walsh and Glater, “Investors Turn Gaze to A.I.G.,” New York Times.
“At least in the Bear case: “Lehman’s Fate,” Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2008.
“Source: There will be no government money”: Steve Liesman to David Faber, Faber Report, CNBC, September 12, 2008.
“Lehman is going down”: Susanne Craig, Jeffrey McCracken, Aaron Lucchetti, and Kate Kelly, “The Weekend that Wall Street Died,” Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2008.
“We are not Lehman”: Ibid.
“concerns about AIG’s ability to shed”: “AIG Shares Fall 20 Percent On Mortgage Woes,” Reuters, September 12, 2008.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
he had given her some $4,600 in donations: On February 21, 2007 Lloyd Blankfein made two contributions, of $2,300 each, to Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign. See http://www.opensecrets.org.
after testifying at a hearing for the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: “Summit to consider how to achieve a more secure, reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy future for the American people.” Friday, September 12, 2008.
BofA shares closed that day at $33.74: Bank of America rose $.68 or 2.1 percent, to $33.74 on Friday, September 12, 2008. “Finance companies shares mixed at the close of trading,” Associated Press, September 12, 2008.
“a quality which, for lack of a better word, I can best describe as epic.” Christopher Gray, “Mix of Limestone and Sandstone, in Florentine Style,” New York Times, November 11, 2001.
a three-level vault: www.newyorkfed.org.
Emergency meeting at NY Fed: Evan Thomas and Michael Hirsh, “Paulson’s Complaint,” Newsweek, May 16, 2009.
“He is in denial,” Paulson continued: Author obtained notes from the emergency meeting at the New York Federal Reserve.
“There is no political will for a federal bailout”: Deborah Solomon, Dennis K. Berman, Susanne Craig, and Carrick Mollenkamp, “Ultimatum by Paulson Sparked Frantic End,” Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2008.
“I assume we are going to talk about AIG?”: Tett, Fool’s Gold, 233.
“Stop being such a jerk”: Kate Kelly, “The Fall of Bear Stearns,” Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2008.
Fuld swallowed his pride and dialed Lewis’s home in Charlotte: According to the Wall Street Journal, Fuld placed the call to Lewis on the afternoon of Sunday, September 14, 2008. Subsequent reporting by the author has revealed that the call was actually made on the evening of Friday, September 12, 2008. See Susanne Craig, Jeffrey McCracken, Aaron Lucchetti, and Kate Kelly in “The Weekend That Wall Street Died,” Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2008.
the same home he had purchased in 1958 for $31,500: Roger Lowenstein, “King Midas—Warren Buffett,” Independent on Sunday, February 18, 1996.
David Bonderman of Texas Pacific Group: Riva D. Atlas and Edward Wong, “Texas Pacific Goes Where Others Fear to Spend,” New York Times, August 25, 2002.
watched his investment lose virtually all of its value in less than half a year: Peter Lattman, “WaMu Fall Crushes TPG,” Wall Street Journal, September 27; Geraldine Fabrikant, “WaMu Tarnishes Star Equity Firm,” New York Times, September 27, 2008.
Paulson hated Flowers, and the antipathy was mutual: Peter Truell and Joseph Kahn, “Goldman Sachs Nears Decisive Talks on Going Public,” New York Times, June 2, 1998.
“Urgent. Code name: Equinox