"$2.7 trillion of notional derivatives exposure , with 12,000 individual contracts....$1 trillion of exposure concentrated with 12 major financial institutions."
"For reasons no one quite understood, Gluksman was holding a few dozen number 2 pencils in his hand. He handed each trader one and asked him to snap it in half, which everyone did, easily and without laughing or even smirking. He then handed a bunch of them to Fuld and asked him to try to break them "
"Could the financial crisis have been avoided? That is the $1.1 trillion question - the price tag of the bailout thus far. The answer to that question is "perhaps." But the preemptive strike would probably have had to come long before Henry Paulson was sworn in as secretary of the Treasury in the spr"