Lehmans three years on: Are investors better off?

Three years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Laura Miller revisits the shocking events and asks if any lessons have been learned.

Three years on and a rundown of the events of 15 September 2008 is still breathtaking. Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the biggest economy in the world, filed for bankruptcy; the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2.5% – 283 points – by early afternoon. By 17 September, the index had dropped a combined 800 points. In the UK, the FTSE 100 plunged by more than 5% on the news and closed down 3.9%, wiping £50bn off the value of Britain’s top 100 companies. Unknown to many UK investors, Lehmans backed thousands of their structured products. When it collapsed, de...