Weekend at Lehman's
Lehman Brothers Pre-Bankruptcy Meeting, 2008
What’s that smell?
“… it smells like bad money.”
What’s that smell? … It smells like bad money. There’s been a lot of it going around in the economy, through housing loans that have turned out to be faulty. Banks are starting to reckon with their excessive risk-taking. Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank on Wall Street, is about to go bankrupt. It bet too heavily on faulty subprime mortgage bonds, and just like many other Wall Street banks, its credibility has plummeted. Nobody can trust Lehman to pay them back, fearing that its assets are toxic. Banks have stopped lending to each other altogether, and the conditions for a recession—or even a Depression—are in place. Unable to pay back its creditors, Lehman is about to default on its obligations and risk a cascade of panic across the entire banking system. Banks want to prevent this, and they’re seeking to create an arrangement for a suitable bank(s) to buy Lehman’s good assets. The government, fearing a cascading recession, also urgently needs to mitigate the fallout from Lehman, but it also does not want to reward Lehman for taking reckless risks.
Now, at the Federal Reserve of New York, policymakers, bank executives, and Lehman’s team are desperate to find a solution that doesn’t risk the next Great Depression. Will Lehman find a new home at a competitor bank, or will executives and policymakers allow the great titan of Wall Street to fall?
Welcome to Wall Street
Will Lehman find a new home at a competitor bank, or will executives and policymakers allow the great titan of Wall Street to fall?
What will you do?
Meet the Team
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Aayan Ali
CHAIR
Aayan Ali is a member of Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and McDonough School of Business Class of 2028, studying finance and international economics as a part of the joint-degree Business and Global Affairs program. Originally from the Windy City, he first got involved in Model UN in his second year of high school. He was the Director of Programming for NCSC LIII and the Crisis Manager for NAIMUN’s White House Situation Room. When he’s not watching sports or scrolling Twitter, you can often see him going for an iced coffee or playing MarioKart with his friends. On campus, he is a consultant for Product Space, a professional club, and will be a research assistant for a financial economics project. Equipped with his Bears merch and excitement for finance, Aayan is thrilled to chair Weekend at Lehman’s! Talk to him about AI, your next stock pick, or a random election in the world that you’re following.
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Alyssa Calmas
CRISIS MANAGER
Alyssa Calmas is in the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts & Sciences. She is originally from Hoboken, New Jersey– birthplace of Frank Sinatra and home of the first baseball game! Director-General of NAIMUN LXIV and former Under-Secretary-General of Non-Traditionals at NAIMUN LXIII, Alyssa is excited to continue her MUN career with her first-ever NCSC this year! When she’s not reading Supreme Court Decisions (or summaries of said decisions), you can find her with an iced oat milk latte and a mystery novel at any cafe in Georgetown.
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ASSOCIATED STAFF
OTHER MEMBERS
Director: Sai Kantheti
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Isabelle Kocher
UNDER SECRETARY-GENERAL
Isabelle Kocher is a member of the class of 2029 in Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, majoring in International Political Economy and intending to minor in Spanish. Isabelle is so incredibly grateful for this opportunity to be your USG of Councils (obviously the best organ but you didn’t hear that from her) and she cannot wait to see you in Washington this fall!
