[lbo-talk] Self-sustaining monstrosity?

[C. G. Estabrook]

The ubiquitous Niall Ferguson has an op-ed in the FT today, "Why a Lehman deal 
would not have saved us," which replies to Lawrence McDonald's "insider’s 
account of the fall of Lehman Brothers" (Lawrence G. McDonald and Patrick 
Robinson, "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse 
of Lehman") -- 
<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f96f2134-a15b-11de-a88d-00144feabdc0.html>.

He concludes "If only we had learnt from Lehman that no bank should be 'too big 
to fail', we might still have a real capitalist system, instead of the 
state-guaranteed monstrosity that is the real legacy of last year’s crisis."

Meanwhile, the FT's Lex column says that, "Those who accept that the world is 
emerging from the financial crisis cannot also argue for radical change to 
institutions, regulations and practices that have delivered a recovery in fairly 
short order ... [But] there could well be another Lehman. For that not to happen 
therefore requires a strong, self-sustaining recovery. If we really are seeing 
the start of one, policymakers should not mess with it too much."