Don't Forget Dick Fuld's Record at Lehman

Richard Fuld has been in the news recently. A profile in the Financial Times discussed his new wealth and money-management firm, as did a report by Bloomberg News. Collectively, the articles suggest he is testing the waters to find out if people have forgiven and forgotten his personal history.

Some of us have certainly not forgotten. I have long been a critic of Fuld's, pointing out that his management errors helped set up Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the company he once ran, for failure. In my book "Bailout Nation," I described how and why he blew the firm’s best opportunity to secure funding during the early days of the financial crisis.1510162165586 In later columns, I noted this error led to a moral-hazard argument that probably derailed a Federal Reserve bailout of the 158-year-old firm. He remains, as I said at one time, the Shaggy of Finance for his unwillingness to accept any responsibility for Lehman’s demise.