In just the past week the US experienced the largest bankruptcy filing in history, the stock market fell over 500 points, the largest drop since the markets reopened after September 11, 2001, and recovered almost as much with the government’s announcement for a federal bailout.

Lehman Brothers, a company that has been around for over 100 years and survived the Great Depression, is one of the latest in a series of unprecedented implosions in the financial sector.  The magnitude of the Lehman Brothers collapse dwarfs the combined failure of WorldCom and Enron by several times.

Other casualties include IndyMac, Bear Stearns, the Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae bail out by the federal government, CountryWide’s likely buyout by Bank of America, and now Merrill Lynch which may layoff up to half of its 60,000 employees. [Read more…]