LEHMAN BROTHERS COLLAPSE, 7 YEARS ON…

In the midst of a highly contested Presidential Race (especially within the Republican Party), and exactly seven years after the Lehman Brothers collapse, it is not surprising for several media outlets – especially those with Democratic leanings – to expose any connections the Presidential contenders may have had with the institutions that collapsed and wreaked havoc on the living conditions of millions of Americans.

There were several major controversies that came with the Lehman Brothers collapse, including the controversy of executive pay during the crisis as well as accounting manipulations.

Many an Average Joe has felt that many of the executives that presided over the bankruptcies of financial giants like Lehman Brothers should have been arrested, prosecuted, and sent to jail. But only Iceland seemed to move in this direction, as virtually ZERO bankers were jailed for either sleeping on the wheels as their banks crashed, or for engaging in fraudulent behavior that hid their toxic assets or masked the dire conditions of their financial positions.

Wikipedia sums up the executive pay controversy quite well:

Richard Fuld, head of Lehman Brothers, faced questioning from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) asked: “Your company is now bankrupt, our economy is in crisis, but you get to keep $480 million (£276 million). I have a very basic question for you, is this fair?” Fuld said that he had in fact taken about $300 million (£173 million) in pay and bonuses over the past eight years. Despite Fuld’s defense on his high pay, Lehman Brothers executive pay was reported to have increased significantly before filing for bankruptcy. On October 17, 2008, CNBC reported that several Lehman executives, including Richard Fuld, have been subpoenaed in a case relating to securities fraud.

A Global Financial System in Great Peril:

Absent of the grace of God, we are witnessing the makings of another financial crisis – a crisis that will be worse than in 2007 / 2008 – a crisis that may possibly be so severe as to lead to the collapse of the US Dollar and all fiat currencies as we currently know them.

Can we really trust the elite politicians, bankers, economists and other power brokers to not only look out for but to also DELIVER for Main Street? At best, the Western political and economic elites seemed to be caught off guard by the financial crises of 2007 and 2008. At best, these world leaders – via their austerity programs, quantitative easing programs, G20 summits, manipulated corporate and governmental accounting, etc – have barely averted DEPRESSION and Western economies are showing signs of recovery.

At worst, these world leaders conspired with political elites that rule from behind the scenes to bring the crisis about and to even PROFIT from the whole exercise of bankruptcies and bank (Wall Street) bailouts, while Main Street has suffered enormously. The political and financial elites – both the ones that have official government and corporate positions, as well as the powers that be that actually pull the strings from the shadows – tend to do well for themselves whatever happens. They did with the last crisis, and the next one – whenever that may be – will probably not be any different.

Action Points: Take Personal Responsibility for Your Destiny

What each and every individual needs to do – especially those in the West – is to do everything they can to ensure the preservation of themselves and their loved ones and their assets.