The Long, Slow Death of Lehman Brothers Is Almost Complete

Daryl Rattigan arrived at Lehman Brothers 18 years ago for a three-month assignment from his law firm. Eventually the bank gave him a full-time job at its real estate finance arm in London.

Then the bank suddenly collapsed.

And he’s still there, almost 14 years later.

It turns out that when global financial institutions die, it can take a while. These deaths require caretakers. The spirit of a bank, even in life, is debt, and debts don’t settle easily into a grave. Most of the assets banks own are the debts of others: the mortgages, commercial loans, and IOUs payable ...