Paulson: British Screwed U.S. on Lehman Bailout
![300px-henry_paulson_official_treasury_photo2c_2006[1]](http://www.soundmoneyinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/300pxhenry_paulson_official_treasury_photo2c_20061.jpg "300px-henry_paulson_official_treasury_photo2c_2006[1]")
Former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson says the British “screwed” the United States by backing out on a proposed deal to buy Lehman Brothers at the height of the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
In excerpts from his new book, “On the Brink,” published in The Wall Street Journal, Paulson, himself a former investment banker, details the chilling 48 hour period before the Lehman bankruptcy and the behind the scenes plays on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve in New York City that failed to stave off disaster.
CEOs from many of the world’s major banks had agreed to support a proposal under which Barclays, the British bank, would assume most of Lehman’s operations, save for a $52 billion “pile” of bad real-estate and private-equity investments.
This would have wiped out Lehman’s preferred and common shareholders, but paid off most of its debt and kept the investment bank operational.
Read More: – by Gene Koprowski, Moneynews
