Lehman’s Bankruptcy Keeps Getting More Expensive

This post originally appeared in Money Stuff.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008, making this week the 10 year and, uh, 4 month anniversary of what might be the central event of the global financial crisis. The New York Fed’s Liberty Street Economics blog has a series of posts this week commemorating the occasion, which seems like weird timing until you notice that the posts are not keyed to the anniversary of the bankruptcy filing but to the end of the bankruptcy process. Or, not the end even; the beginning of the end. “This week, we will publish a series of four posts that provide an assessment of the value lost to Lehman, its creditors, and other stakeholders now that the bankruptcy proceedings are winding down,” says the first post. Winding down! “The Chapter 11 proceedings are set to continue for some time,” concedes a later post. Remember Lehman filed for bankruptcy 10 years and 4 months ago. You can actually go read the posts for some calculations of the value lost to Lehman and its stakeholders in bankruptcy, but that timeline alone is enough to give you a rough sense: If you are in bankruptcy for 10 years and 4 months and you’re still not done, stuff is bad.