Chapters 6-7 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 6 describes some of the internal conflicts that took place at Lehman as the company worked to fend off potential collapse. Dick Fuld had begun talks with a Korean bank trying to convince the Koreans to invest in Lehman to provide it with more capital. Although the talks were intended to be secret, news of them was leaked to the Wall Street Journal, infuriating Fuld. Suspicion for the leak fell on Erin Callan, the chief financial officer.

Fuld also faced pressure from other firms to raise more capital. These firms that lent money short term to Lehman to leverage investments began to demand more collateral for their loans as news of Lehman's troubles spread. One of Fuld's top executives, Skip McGee, came to him and told him that the prevailing thinking was that Lehman should make a major change...