Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a story about Lehman Brothers wherein the paper sent a reporter out to eavesdrop around the bank's headquarters. "It's over, man...unless we get bought out in the next 24 hours, it's over," they quoted a "young man" as saying to someone on his cell phone. Then over by a "fast food cart" the reporter quoted one of three men wearing Lehman badges discussing the future of all capitalism in the event that the government decides to stop printing money to rescue banks whose stocks have been mercilessly pointlessly attacked by all those greedy/fearful predatory/lemminglike enemies of capitalism known as "capitalists," asking: "At some point, where does it stop?" Well here's where it stops, bro: your egg and cheese. They don't serve them with a "side of digital recorder" around here anymore.
The food cart guy knows that whispers like the ones he hears outside are self-fulfilling prophecies in an irrational era like the modern ones, so he's shutting off the coffee spigot to reporters descending on the area to cover the Lehman crisis! You gotta wonder why he cares though.
I mean, sure the impending layoffs at Lehman will have some "trickle-down" effect. But in lean times won't a larger percentage of bankers be eating from the food cart in lieu of whatever fancy hotels they've been patronizing on the company dime? Ha ha ha, or maybe that's just how I wish "lean times" worked at publicly traded companies. In any case I have another theory: the food cart guy is trying to buy Lehman Brothers. Sure 24,000 employees is a little ambitious, but Lehman stock is off 93% and at least you can read the food cart's balance sheet.
Or maybe the food cart guy is just a decent guy.
Photo Of The Day [Portfolio]
Credit Crisis Strains Government's Options [WSJ]
