One of the most amazing things to emerge from this credit crunch is the inability of Fuld and his ilk (Hank Greenberg etc) to take any responsibility for their companies going belly up or being bought out.
And its not like they are even going 'OK, I seriously sucked the big one there - oops'. Its almost like (despite years of being considered management gurus) they *still* haven't worked out what happened. Take this quote from Dick Head, I mean Fuld, at the congressional hearing...
Richard Fuld, Lehman's chief executive officer, told a Congressional hearing on Oct. 6 that he doesn't know why AIG received government help when Lehman didn't.
``Until the day they put me in the ground, I will wonder,'' he said.
OK, hands up who wants to solve that little brainteaser? - Erm Dick, neither of you deserved to be bailed out, but at least AIG had some collateral to loan against, whereas your company had.. oh, none!
In the future economics students are going to look back on this time and go 'what??? and these guys where getting like 50 mill a year???!!!??? Nooo? Really? No wonder the system failed' Watching news footage of this year will be like watching those Harry Enfield 'Women - know your Limits' clips "oh I don't know about the gold standard, but I do love a fluffy kitten" - it will be equally as amusing and cringeworthy
And its not like they are even going 'OK, I seriously sucked the big one there - oops'. Its almost like (despite years of being considered management gurus) they *still* haven't worked out what happened. Take this quote from Dick Head, I mean Fuld, at the congressional hearing...
Richard Fuld, Lehman's chief executive officer, told a Congressional hearing on Oct. 6 that he doesn't know why AIG received government help when Lehman didn't.
``Until the day they put me in the ground, I will wonder,'' he said.
OK, hands up who wants to solve that little brainteaser? - Erm Dick, neither of you deserved to be bailed out, but at least AIG had some collateral to loan against, whereas your company had.. oh, none!
In the future economics students are going to look back on this time and go 'what??? and these guys where getting like 50 mill a year???!!!??? Nooo? Really? No wonder the system failed' Watching news footage of this year will be like watching those Harry Enfield 'Women - know your Limits' clips "oh I don't know about the gold standard, but I do love a fluffy kitten" - it will be equally as amusing and cringeworthy
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