Auditors for the Lehman liquidation found that by declaring a snap bankruptcy, rather than unwinding gracefully, that as much as 75 billion dollars went poof. The reason is that an abrupt bankruptcy meant that trades were canceled, and Lehman was on the winning side of many of those trades. This cost 50 billion. Lehman’s banking business made 4 billion in profits the year before, which means that even at a conservative price to earnings mutiple, it should have been saleable for 25 billion, rather than 500 million.

Only 20 billion dollars has been recovered from liquidation, which means that for every dollar that Lehman creditors are getting, they lost 3 because of how Lehman went down.

This looks like a dick measuring contest, where Lehman’s management, blocked from a federal bailout, decided to simply take everyone down with them. And not coincidentally, pick the winners and losers of the carnage.

"Some men, just want to watch the world burn."

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