Greed, Hubris Led Up To Lehman's Fall
CBS Early Show Co-Anchor Harry Smith Wonders What Will Happen To The Workers Who Weren't Responsible For Bankruptcy
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People leave the Lehman Brothers headquarters on 7th Ave. in New York City carrying personal belongings as they clear their offices, Sept. 14, 2008 after hearing the news that Lehman Brothers may be forced to seek an orderly unwinding of its businesses. (AP Photo/David Karp)
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Play CBS Video Video Lehman's Collapse Creates Chaos Global share prices sank on the news of Lehman's collapse, leaving the international financial markets in chaos. The world's central banks are pouring in funds to help calm the storm. Charlie D'Agata reports.
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Video Notebook: Lehman Brothers Kelly Wallace reports on the crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, two of the most powerful financial institutions, collapsed under the weight of bad mortgage investments.
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Video Lehman, Lynch Shake Up Market The stock market plummeted due to news of Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy and Bank Of America's purchase of Merrill Lynch. Karen Brown reports.
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In The Spotlight Harry Smith Reporting The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith offers commentary for CBSNews.com.
Greed and hubris. I’m wondering today how the folks at Lehman Brothers are doing. Not the company's officers. But the folks who really make it go. The secretaries and assistants, the IT guys. Human resources. Clerks. Even the people who clean the offices.
Last week they knew they worked for a big bank. They had jobs. Benefits even. And now what?
We’ve seen the pictures of folks walking out of the building with their cardboard boxes. A look of bewilderment on their faces. Investing is a crap shoot. You do your due diligence, look at the market trends, and try to determine if it's heading up, or heading down.
But, it looks more and more like some of biggest players on Wall Street simply didn’t know when to back away from the table. That greed and smug awareness that they could do no wrong will cost them houses in the Hamptons, and some of the other baubles that go with their positions.
They’ll land on their feet. They usually do. But what of the others?
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
