Lehman CEO Blames Fed for Financial Crisis

In a remarkable case of the pot calling the kettle black, Lehman Brothers' former CEO Richard Fuld pointed a finger at the US Federal reserve today, saying it worsened the financial crisis in September 2008. Testifying at a hearing, Fuld blamed the Fed for letting the investment bank fail. He said, “Only Lehman was denied that expanded access” that would have allowed for a more orderly wind-down of its business. Fuld continues to deny that the bank took too much risk and hid its true financial condition through off-balance-sheet financing.

Also today, the FCIC released hundreds of emails and documents from the period leading up to the bank's collapse, which the FCIC chairman says reveal what appears to be a “conscious policy decision not to rescue” Lehman. In particular, the Financial Times notes an email from Chief of Staff Jim Wilkinson to then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson that read, “I just can’t stomach us bailing out Lehman. Will be horrible in the press.” Read the full article. (More Richard Fuld stories.)