And the Winner is…
posted by Nate Oman
One of my students sent me the pages from Lehman’s filings listing the 30 top unsecured creditors. It’s a simple column of figures that makes sobering reading, even for a let-the-market-punish-them enthusiast such as myself. First past the post is CitiBank with $138 billion in unsecured bonds. Just for fun, I tried to find out what $138 billion will get you in today’s world. It is equal to:
The second quarter 2008 revenues of ExonMobile.The value of all of the cement produced in China in 2006.
The value of the Florida Retirement System, i.e. public pensions.
The amount of money spent under the Presevation of Public Lands of America Act, a bill originally introduced by my former Senator George Allen as a joke. (Okay, so my source on that one is The Onion.)
Looking just in the ball park and you get:
The total value of all goods purchased at self-checkout kiosks in the United States in 2006. ($137 billion)The amount of money necessary to run the State of Texas for two years. ($139 billion)
The value of total U.S. investment in the Korean stock market in the last year. ($140 billion)
Interestingly, $138 billion is also exactly the amount of money that JP Morgan advanced to Lehman Brother’s yesterday and today in what Bloomberg calls “Federal Reserve backed advances.”
September 16, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Posted in: Bankruptcy
Print This Post
Responses (1)
Chris B. - September 16, 2008 at 10:07 pm
It doesn’t really affect your post, but it’s worth pointing out that the $138 billion isn’t really owed to Citi itself, but to Citi as the indenture trustee.
So the upshot is that the “biggest unsecured creditor” appears to be the average bondholder.
Leave a Reply