Yeah

I stayed over at Jon’s yesterday so I didn’t get the news until 3AM: Lehman Brothers — with $639b in assets — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the 15th. On top of that, Bank of America bought out Merril Lynch for $50b, which makes it the largest financial company in the world today. In seven years, BofA will be the richest it has ever been (and ever will be, if another market crash forces it to sell its assets to some other IB). If they somehow manage to make it out of this alive (and you’re willing to take a huge amount of risk), now would probably be a good time to buy LEH stock. It’s not very often you see investment bank shares going for less than a small packet of Ovalteenies from the shop downstairs.

It’s not like you couldn’t see this coming, though; as early as March, people were speculating that LB would be the next to go. Let’s see where Goldman takes it from here.

Which reminds me of a book my brother left behind when he flew off to the US to study, what, seven or eight years ago? I can’t even remember. Anyway — the book was Po Bronson’s Bombardiers. It’s an investment novel; ridiculously hilarious, and — given the current state of the financial markets as they are — it’s also chillingly accurate.

The irony in all this is that the people at the top will remain rich while the investors get the shit end of the stick. A monolithic company like LB filing for bankruptcy protection doesn’t mean anything for the personal assets of its directors; they get to keep the billions they already have stashed away in Switzerland. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a beautiful thing or it makes for the the ugliest industry you can ever think of.

I’d say in two years (give or take), Wall Street will have bounced back and be running at full-tilt again. No idea what they’re going to do about that bull for now, though. Maybe some other artist will cast a bronze bear and dump it there as an ironic Christmas gift instead.

New York’s going to be an interesting place when I visit next month.