Summary

NAME: US ANNIV 20090913Ifl TAPE: EF09/0868 IN_TIME: 11:13:21:15 DURATION: 00:03:40:13 SOURCES: AP TELEVISION/ABC DATELINE: New York, 8/10 Sept 2009/FILE RESTRICTIONS: Part No Access N America/Internet SHOTLIST: AP Television FILE: New York City - September 15, 2008 1 Various exteriors of Lehman Brothers building ABC - No Access North America/Internet FILE: New York City - September 14, 2008 2 Various of Lehman employees leaving offices with personal items AP Television New York City - September 8, 2009 3 Top shot pan of NYSE trading floor 4 Tight shot of trader on floor 5 SOUNDBITE: (English) Alan Valdes, trader at NYSE: You'd go home on a Friday with Bear Stearns You'd come back Monday and they'd be out of business You'd go home Friday with Merrill, you'd come back Monday they'd be gone I mean it was just, no one ever dreamed of seeing days like that and I hope we never see them again There was a day, when the money market broke the buck, I really thought that could be it I really thought you could feel the trepidation in the crowd down here, it was electric that day and I really thought the markets could definitely go into a tailspin 6 Mid shot of traders 7 SOUNDBITE: (English) Bernie McSherry, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives & Cattone Company: There was concern that the government that was in office at the time was philosophically opposed to helping anyone, in a sense, look what happened with Lehman And I was worried they were going to drag their feet on it a few more days I think we were within 72 hours of a collapse of the system If they had not announced on that Thursday morning, some time over the weekend things would have started to fall apart and we would not have opened up Monday morning 8 Tight shot of trader on floor 9 SOUNDBITE: (English) Jason Weisberg, trader with Seaport Securities: I just remember being tired coming into work everyday It was exhausting It was absolutely exhausting to come into work and it was mentally punishing 10 Zoom out from computer screen to wide of traders 11 SOUNDBITE: (English) Jonathan Corpina, senior floor trader for Meridian Equity Partners: When you look back on it now a year later, the writing was on the wall that what was happening should have happened AP Television FILE: New York City - September 15, 2008 New York City 12 Tight shot exterior of Lehman Brothers building AP Television New York City - September 10, 2009 13 SOUNDBITE: (English) Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard and Poor's: Well I think what a lot of rhetoric we have been experiencing recently is that it probably was a mistake in retrospect, but they probably did what they felt was the right thing at the time I think what's most important is you take a look at the markets' performances leading up to that September 13th/14th weekend when the decision to let Lehman go under was made and then the market carnage that occurred that Monday, the remainder of September, and then through the November low AP Television New York City - September 8, 2009 14 Various of traders AP Television New York City - September 10, 2009 15 SOUNDBITE: (English) Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard and Poor's: Well, I think the cynic in me says that give it a couple of years and people will forget all of this and something else will blind side them or people will convince themselves that this time it's different But what you usually find whether we are heading up or whether we're heading down is we've gone to far in either direction, this time it is never different AP Television New York City - September 8, 2009 16 Tracking shot of traders on floor 17 SOUNDBITE: (English) Bernie McSherry, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives & Cattone Company: Some of the closes we saw a huge influx of sellers on the bell and it was difficult to imagine how we were going to get out of that The system itself was on the brink and fortunately for all of us it has pulled back 18 Wide shot exterior of NYSE STORYLINE: A year ago on Monday one of the United States' historic banks, Lehman Brothers, collapsed, precipitating a near meltdown of the financial system and triggering a global recession Lehman had lost around six (b) billion US dollars over six months on bad trading bets and its mortgage-related assets and investors and stock analysts feared the company was running out of time Finally when the government decided Lehman wasn't too big to fail, the storied institution, which traced its history to before the US Civil War, declared bankruptcy on September 15th I think we were within 72 hours of a collapse of the system, said Bernie McSherry, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives & Cattone Company But now the nation's biggest banks are bigger and regaining their appetite for risk Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others - which have received tens of (b) billions of dollars in federal aid - are once more betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products, trading that nearly stopped during the financial crisis That Wall Street is making money again in essentially the same ways that thrust the banking system into chaos last fall is reason for concern on several levels, financial analysts and government officials say There have been no significant changes to the federal rules governing their behaviour Proposals that have been made to better monitor the financial system and to police the products banks sell to consumers have been held up by lobbyists, lawmakers and turf-protecting regulators Through mergers and the failure of Lehman Brothers, the mammoth banks whose near-collapse prompted government rescues have gotten even bigger, increasing the risk they pose to the financial system And they still make bets that, in the aggregate, are worth far more than the capital they have on hand to cover against potential losses The government's response to last year's meltdown was to spend whatever it takes to protect the financial system from collapse - a precedent that could encourage even greater risk-taking from the private sector No one is predicting another meltdown from risky trading in the near term Rather, the concern is what happens over time as banks' confidence grows and the memory of the financial crisis of 2008 fades Will they pile on bets to the point that a new asset bubble forms and - as happened with mortgage-backed securities - its undoing endangers banks and the broader economy? Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard and Poor's, believes history is, at some point, likely to repeat itself Well I think the cynic in me says that give it a couple of years and people will forget all of this and something else will blind side them or people will convince themselves that this time it's different, he said One trader said that the financial collapse in 2008 had in fact been predictable When you look back on it now a year later, the writing was on the wall that what was happening should have happened, Jonathan Corpina, senior floor trader for Meridian Equity Partners, said Wall Street's recent recovery is also being aided by a stock-market rally that has driven the S&P 500 index up nearly 54 percent since March 9, when it hit a 12-year low Despite the return to profitability, these aren't the high-octane days from before the crisis To qualify for government backing, the biggest Wall Street firms are no longer allowed to supercharge their returns by borrowing up to 30 times the value of their assets to place bets on stocks, bonds and other investments The Obama administration has also proposed measures to diminish the risk posed by large banks They include forcing banks to hold more capital to cover losses and trying to increase the transparency of markets in which banks trade the most complex - and potentially risky - financial products One major component of the Obama plan - creating an agency to oversee the marketing of financial products to consumers - will be difficult to pass in Congress Industry lobbying against it and other proposed financial rules has been fierce