One Year after Lehman Brothers’s collapse lessons learned:

Today marked the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the financial markets. Lehman Brothers was a company that the Federal Government allowed to fail without leaping to their rescue (as opposed to AIG and Citigroup). This is a decision that many historians will go back and review the ramifications of for a long period.

So much happened during this one year, the financial crisis was exacerbated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, unemployment numbers went up to numbers we have not seen for years, home values continued their decline, credit and financing froze. Many Americans lost their confidence in the financial systems.

www.Smartmoney.com put a list of major key factors and measures of our economy today vs. a year ago. These factors highlight the impact of the financial crisis:

Unemployment rate
Aug. 2008: 6.1%
Aug. 2009: 9.7%
Source: Labor Department

People working part-time for economic reasons
Aug. 2008: 5.7 million
Aug. 2009: 9.1 million
Source: Labor Department

Dow Jones Industrial Average close
Sept. 12, 2008: 11,422
Sept. 11, 2009: 9,605

Price of gold
Sept. 12, 2008: $750.25 per ounce
Sept. 11, 2009: $1,006.40 per ounce

Consumer Confidence Index
Aug. 2008: 58.5
Aug. 2009: 54.1
Source: The Conference Board

President’s approval rating
Sept. 8-11, 2008: 31%
Sept. 5-8, 2009: 51%
Source: Gallup

Price of a gallon of gasoline
Sept. 15, 2008: $3.867
Sept. 7, 2009: $2.519
Source: Energy Department

Price of a gallon of milk
July 2008: $3.96
July 2009: $2.99
Source: Labor Department

Average price of a SanDisk 2-Gigabyte Secure Digital Card
Sept. 9, 2008: $13.10
Sept. 9, 2009: $11.38
Source: PriceGrabber.com

Manufacturer’s suggested retail price of a new Ford Focus
2009 model: $15,520 (up 7.8% from 2008 model)
2010 model: $15,995 (up 3.1% from 2009 model)
Source: Consumer Guide Automotive

S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for 20 U.S. metropolitan regions
June 2008: 167.69
June 2009: 141.31
Source: Standard & Poor’s

President Obama marked the anniversary by appearing in Wall Street touting today the lessons to be learned from Lehman and its aftermath. The President was reminding us that the measures taken by the Federal Government and Federal Reserve led to the stabilization of our economy. However, beware of the illusion and false sense of security. Let us not forget how we got here, and learn from our mistakes. These mistakes cost us as American Taxpayers billions of dollars.



The Fear and Greed are two emotions that drive most investors. A year ago, you could not get most sophisticated investors to stay in the stock market and invest in equities. Today with the stock markets at year to date highs, we should be careful from our greed sweeping us back in our old habits.