Joris Luyendijk spent two years talking to hundreds of City insiders. They revealed how close we came to catastrophe – and how quickly finance went back to business as usualAsk people where they were on 9/11,and most have a memory to share. Ask where they were when Lehman Brothers collapsed, and many will struggle even to remember the correct year. The 158-year-stale Wall Street bank filed for bankruptcy on 15 September 2008. As the news broke, and insiders experienced an atmosphere of unprecedented panic. One former investment banker recalled: “I thought: so this is what the threat of war must feel like. I remember looking out of the window and seeing the buses drive by. People everywhere going through a normal working day – or so they thought. I realised: they have no understanding. I called my father from the office to tell him to transfer all his savings to a safer bank. Going domestic that day,I was genuinely terrified.A veteran at a small credit rating agency who spent his whole career in the City of London told me with genuine emotion: “It was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. We came so close to a global meltdown.” He had been on holiday in the week Lehman went bust. “I remember opening up the paper every day and going: ‘Oh my God.’ I was on my BlackBerry following events. Confusion, embarrassment, or incredulity ... I went through the whole gamut of human emotions. At some point my wife threatened to throw my BlackBerry in the lake whether I didn’t halt reading on my phone. I couldnt halt.” Related: Sign up to the long read email It’s back to business as usual. We went from 'We nearly died from this' to 'We survived this.'The problem with today’s banks is that those who accept the risks are no longer those who bag stuck with the billIf you blame the crash on character flaws in individuals you imply that the system itself is fineContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com