Where’s Dick Fuld?

Why don’t Americans get more mad. This guy let’s his firm gamble on completely leveraged assets and then cries when the government lets him swing. All to the tune of $480m, oh sorry he said he only recieved $60m in cash! Crook, this whole run of CEO pay is like the steroid era of baseball.

Too big to fail, huh?

Quite ironic how the nation of the economic laissez-faire succumbed to what would make even Mr. Chavez ashamed, and how these financial institutes, prime of estimation, that used tell what the world should do, are now asking communist China for water.

May Mr. Fuld enjoy the rest of his days with his much deserved yatch, jets and estates.

Mr Fuld and his ilk are getting what they deserve. For years the investment houses/bankers have been making OUTSIZED salaries and bonuses.

I like capitalism just as the enxt person. However, when you are pulling down multimillion dollar salaries/bonuses year after year (regardless of the firm’s performance) something has to give.

What gave was overarching greed mixed with over leveraged firms. A giant ponzi scheme which has chnaged the face of the financial world.

Let’s pray for the better.

It is easy to make charcoal out of a fallen tree, is a common phrase in Latin America. I am sure many investors, creditors and employees feel affected by Lehman`s failure. Yet, we must all acknowledge the merits of a man who was not an Yve League graduate and made LB a firm, a place to work for many yve leaguers. He fought until the end and as a loyal captain, he sanked with his ship.

Bush, Paulson and Bernanke are now breast feeding 799 financial institutions abolishing “Free Market Capitalism” and welcoming Cuba and Venezuela`s form of socialism.

I started my career at Lehman when it went public and I can say with certainty that there are many CEO`s look alike Dick Fuld in the Street, none with a backbone to support the pressures he encountered. There are firms (private) founded in 1850 with Mickey Mouse CEO`s, without the stature of the fallen Lehman Brothers. I am sure Dick Fuld will be back to face the crowd, the courts and the people he served. We are all prompt to judging and pointing fingers and I wonder how we would have acted in the same circumstances?

I RESPECT HIM! and may God bless him and his family in these hard times.

Ben from NY: You can not be serious, i audited these large thrifts(banks and Investmet houses) for a large public accounting firm and wanted to write down reserves in 03, because first i could never come up with a value for CDO’s even after talking extensively with the large entities that do those things. Once i dug into further even i, a lowly upper manager auditor, found they were absolute crap. After wanting to reserve billions for their collapse, my firm valued their business over my common sense. I do not regret it, i started my own firm and the Lenders and SEC value my opinions for the great auditing i do today.

These guys knew what they were doing with the shareholders money; they pumped up the stock by frontloaded fees and they knew the default rate, now they know they really miscalculated it, they projected they would make the money back on the backside sale. A lot of companies and their CEO’s pump up value to earn more $, that is the American way. These empty suits new they were playing the risk game and they lost in the end. At my CPA firm i would hate for him to do my firm billing. The heat got to him and he realized he leveraged the hilt out of a 150 year old firm, and lost. He hid like a gambler who loses in Vegas, he can not believe he blew that much money and now (his company) is broke. There have been a lot of CEO’s folks thought were outstanding, but they ran their companies into the ground just like this dude. Entering into complex transactions like these almost always blow up in your face, as a shareholder, i would ask what the Hell are these things on the financial statements. A lot of the employees knew this was crap, i feel sorry for the lower level workers and of course the folks that funded this dude’s retirement homes, the shareholders. Unfortunately, even the folks that have securities licenses many times do not understand these products but if the loads are good why not sell. I sell securities in my firm and if i do not have a solid grasp of the investment or makeup of funds i never sell it to a client, no matter how much i can make. One of my competitors once tried to sale my 82 year old client an annuity, that shocked me. The competitor would have made a nice commission but i told the guy geez you would have to live to 100 to make a dime.

I just wanted to add a little comment, especially for John from Vancouver and Ben from NYC, and all the others who will soon explain me that Dick Fuld is an honest man. I am a Lehman employee from the London Office; I begun few months ago; and “Saint Dick” just betrayed me with 4,500 other people. Please read the following article entitled “Lehman’s London Betrayal” to see what I mean: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/special-report/article.html?in_article_id=452210&in_page_id=108

The worst is that this guy bragged about the “successful” sale of the US unit in an email sent to US employees only. Unfortunately, Mister Fuld, people communicate. And he forced to send this email to the employees in Europe too. My point is that “Saint Dick” had not even been able to face those he betrayed! What a great man!!

I am not violent in any way, but right now I would

Fuld is the laughing stock of Wall Street. Him and all the greedy crooks of Lehman got what they deserved. Am glad I jumped ship before they crashed.

When easy money flows, people seems to be so happy. But now evelybody is looking for demons in the bush… Jesus, we just have to look at financial authorities. They should prevent (and avoid) all this mass!

Strange, you people blame Fuld instead of the culture. Why weren’t you raving 10 years ago when these instruments were making your portfolios and 401k’s grow??? Why weren’t you crying loud to stop banks from packaging loans??? May be because you enjoyed 4% mortgages and 15%-40% return on your investments? I am not trying to say that management is nice and clean, but it is the culture to blame. A culture that created grossly overcompensated top managers, ignorance for risk, etc. Fuld should have sold the firm 6 months ago when he saw the problem, but then he would not be a CEO no longer, so he waited till the last minute and failed… And that’s his personal fault in my opinion.

A better question to me is, “Where is Christopher Cox, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission?”

Here’s a quote from the SEC web site comes “The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.”

Throughout this entire financial shake-up Christopher Cox has been missing.

Dick Fuld went from having 700 million in stock in Jan of 08 to 2.5 million today. That’s just stupid. Meanwhile, all the little guys lost everything. What were people expecting when they walked into work Monday morning? That everything would be ok?? That everything would just go away? Don’t blame Dick Fuld! Don’t Blame Bush! Don’t blame the Govt. Blame yourselves and take some personal accountability into perspective!

They brought the system in this state with their greed, now they sneak out like vermin not even giving a word of sympathy or apologize to the people. That’s the modern time manager practice, I hope this is a lesson to all.

Yes it was greed, but the people who worked and the investors, where happy to take the cash while it was there. Its not all his fault, stop demanding double digit returns year on year and they wont take the risk.

It is very sad to learn about this disaster.How Mr Fuld be so stupid? God knows how many families are ruined. Aren’t these guys lecturing the whole world on financial management.Shouldn’t this guy step and see what could be done with the remains? What happened to old fashion responsibility? Plain wrong this is.

This is a good example of greed and aggressiveness of typical American investment banks and corporations. When CEO’s were paying multi-million paychecks and bonuses, average workers were being led into modern-day slavery.

Are you people kidding me? We weren’t calling for anyone’s head on a stick when we all took advantage of the cheap and easily obtained exotic loans which gave many of us a first time taste of home ownership. Without folks like Fuld we wouldn’t know the exhilaration of selling a home for double it’s value in 2 years of buying it or the fear of watching the market drop out 500 points in losses in a day. I guess it is true that the mob is fickle. Remember we all took the ride together, shooting the chauffeur only makes us feel less responsible it doesn’t actually make us less responsible.

Fuld, u are a pig. As an Italian-American, our media is obsessed with the Mafia! These guys, Fuld, Jimmy, fatty Cayne and others are far worse! At least organized crime runs profitable business. Hey Fuld, hanging with Rangel in the DR? Do you hide your money too…
DISGUSTING!

It seems to be crooks like Fuld that have contributed to the destruction and loss of confidence in our financial markets. Look at all the lives and finances this one man has destroyed. There seems to be no ethics or leadership left anywhere anymore.

I am very proud of the very strong effort put forth by our team here at Lehman Brothers to keep this company from having to face the music today. May better days be forth coming.

Dick Fuld is a man of honesty, integrity, and trust. He has done all he could to keep the firm alive. Shame on those people who are unfairly lambasting him.

TYPICAL CEO BEHAVIOR

Most highly paid CEO’s regard themselves as a kind of “American Royalty.” They are “used” to the water separating ahead of them as they enter a room. In short, it’s a matter of power.

In their eyes they are “godlike.”

It is absolutely in character for Fuld to ignore the mess he was partly responsible for creating.

His lawyers are probably telling him to be quiet too.

He has his billions. Why should he care?

sanjosemike

fuld…. new name for crook!

You know. for all of whats going on in the financial world, I have trouble connecting it to my life. My car, my home, my family, and my education are all worth just as much as they were yesterday (or in many cases, worth more).
Credit is for chumps. Taking your house to a pawn shop (mortgage) is for the gullible. I’m every bit as affluent today as I have always been if not moreso.
This is a great shift that may just teach people the lesson they need to learn and take to heart. Stop spending money you dont have. As far as im concerned, (while devastating in the short term) the best possible thing that could happen to us is a collapse of the lending industry. Most people need a brutally hard lesson in money, savings and spending. If we save the banks and prop the system up they wont learn it.

Do you people even have any idea what you’re talking about? Or are you just reacting out of liberal antipathy towards all highly paid Wall Street execs? I work for one of Lehman’s competitors, but Dick Fuld was one of the best CEO’s in the business, and certainly not a crook.

Liar Brothers

TYPICAL CEO’s. I remember when I went to IU business school our professors talked about taking responsibility for your actions. Well Mr. Fuld?? I’m waiting…oohhh by the way on your way out please write us a check for all the money you stole.

I think Fuld and other abusive CEO’s should face the same fate as corrupt Chinese senior management does. Makes the next level of management consider their actions carefully.

These officials should be charged, tried, and if found guilty… executed, and not sentenced to a 10 year term just buying time waiting to get out one day to make away with millions, if not billions of dollars. I hate to say it… but that is what they do in China. It’s time for no tolerance… these people are wrecking tens of thousands of lives and ruining Wall Street investor confidence and the economy as a whole.

White-collar tycoons(a nice word for an adjective I can’t use) who run away with the company loot are as apologetic as a sociopath…they know NOT what they do.

Why should he? He is just being a TYPICAL CEO of any companies: leaving the mess for all the little guys to deal with while he took all the goodies off.

Fuld should be put in jail for fraud. As should the CEOS of the other major banks/brokers.

Their entire rev/profits were built on the last 10yrs of phony investments and toxic waste.

Shame on Fuld (and other CEOs) whose greed has impacted the livs (and families) of SO many others. It is too bad that one cannot be sued for management malpractice! And adding insult to the wounds: not being present when the ship goes down!