Lehman to Layman

It was blood bath on the world financial markets, the bear ran amuck on some of the big names in the financial world, Merril Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG ...(and I just hope its not so on and so worth)…these were reputed names that spelt trust, integrity and long-term stability, and above all these were the very institutions until not so long ago were doling out dream jobs to the B School grads, offering them pay-packets in which the young grads counted the zeroes as I counted stars. The week that went by has seen one of them going bust, one on the verge of going bust and one went on sale, call it what ever u want euphemistically Mergers, Acquisitions, Consolidation, Correction…it all just boils down to in ‘layman’s’ terms…. a major screw up.
The debates on print and visual media were centred on collapse of these big names, some blame it on personal greed of a handful, some on mismanagement, and some simply accuse the American way of handling their economy as the reason for the biggest financial crisis in recent times.
Im neither a financially savvy economist nor do I have stakes in those big names but for a layman like me Lehman going bust is absolutely incomprehensible. Im sure some of my financially astute readers might help me understand this.
Only a couple of weeks ago an insurance / investment agent was trying to sell me a product and in the process went on to assure me that the product was backed by one of the biggest names in Insurance and I was nodding approvingly, when I heard AIG, little did I know then that exactly a fortnight later even 89 Billion USD would not be enough to bail them out …
I guess its time to dust those good old State Cooperative Bank passbooks and renew our post office savings accounts. For those familiar with the TNSC Bank (Tamil Nadu State Cooperative)... jog your memory down to their advert / logo …It used to show a tiny sparrow feeding its lil ones, symbol of some modest aspirations and integrity, we have come a long way since then… the tiny sparrows have been upstaged by the Vultures and Eagles of greed…