The bank's building boom became a busted flush
Exactly one year ago, at 5:38 am London time, the world’s biggest ever bankruptcy was confirmed. The $646 billion collapse of Wall Street banking giant Lehman Brothers – roughly 10-times bigger than the failure of US energy group Enron – followed a frantic weekend of last gasp talks between the bank, the US Federal Reserve and British bank Barclays, yet those last desperate hours of talks failed.
Stock markets around the world were thrown into a panic not seen since the Great Depression of 1929 and the reverberations have been felt in every corner of the global economy since.
The bailout cash, in facts and figures:
212.5 one-day slump of FTSE 100 after Lehman collapse unveiled
£30,000 spent for every man, woman and child bailing out Britain’s banks, or
94% of UK GDP
10 years worth of banking sector profits wiped out by asset write-offs
2.3% of projected decline of world economy this year, or
$1 trillion in monetary value
133% predicted rise in UK government debt over next five years from roughly $600 billion to $1.4 trillion
£815bn lost in national UK wealth between end of 2007 and 2008
15% estimated drop in the value of people’s homes between end 2007 and 2008
361 points fall of FTSE 100 since Lehman collapse to date
Market Moves
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