My fam and i spent the entire dinner debating who's to be blamed for lehman's downfall. to me, it's really simple.. all the mkt particpants had a hand in this. from the exFC greenspan, to present FC bernanke, to lehman's ceo fuld, and all the other financial institutions who pulled the plug on this distressed bank, had a part to play and hence, a price to pay.

if aig crashes as well, then the probability of a next wave of writedowns in the form of corp and consumer debts will significantly increase. so all eyes on the US now. and in true krugman's style, paul krugman wrote a truly cynical but sensible piece on the financial russian roulette.

but honestly, we're all very said that it is lehman, and not ML, who had to go. because it's like.. lehman u know. so tragic. anyway, financial textbooks authors will all be scrambling to rewrite their case studies in view of everything that has happened this yr. i'm sure the final diagnosis shld be very interesting to say the least..

i just couldnt resist the urge to blog today because it's probably gonna be one of the most memorable days that will ever go down in financial history. it's not everyday you get one of the world's largest bank toppling down like jenga blocks.

it's not everyday either, that i open my web browser to find so much negative news in one page. Look at the spectecular chart on the right which shows dow jones gapping down by a whopping 292 pts on opening! and it's not even mid day in wall street yet.

so lehman is finally going down, and taking the rest of the world with it - credits, commodities, global equities.. even EM is not spared. lehman now trades at 29cents which is such a scandalous thought for one of wall street's oldest investment bank.

One report in the middle now questions if AIG's plight will be worse than lehman's. it's a highly justified question at this point in time since so little has been divulged about AIG's financial status.

There is one good news today though (circled in green) - will ML deal signal the bottom of the market?

Yet, a skeptic's answer would be this is only the beginning of the end.

Oh, such turbulent times we live in!