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ZACH: If you talk to 100 people,
102 are going to tell you they hate bankers,
but most people won't be able to tell you why.
Is it because we're privileged?
It can't be.
Some of us did dirty jobs to get through college.
I know one woman who paid her way through Princeton
working as a call girl for the mafia.
Is it because we make a lot of money?
-Well, some of us do... -[CASH REGISTER DINGS]
...and some of us don't.
In general, people resent those they perceive to be on top.
That's how the French Revolution happened.
[SCREAMING]
And in the end, perception can matter more than the truth.
You could have been born like I was,
on the wrong side of the tracks in Tennessee.
Actually, when you're from Tennessee,
it's all the wrong side of the tracks.
[MOBILE RINGING]
But once you get to Wall Street,
no matter how you got here,
you give up your right to say you're a man of the people.
Here, we're all the same.
And we all went down together.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
Dick Fuld had given his life to Lehman Brothers
and was well known on Wall Street
for his unique personal style.
His nickname is "The Gorilla".
I can't give you more collateral!
No, not until we've had a chance to raise a bit more cap...
We're under-capitalised, yes, like everyone and their...
Jamie... Jamie. Jamie!
I need you up here today.
Jamie! What do you want me to do?
-You want me to wire you now five bil... -[PHONE RINGING]
No, you're unreasonable!
I've had Paulson up my ass all week,
our stock's dropped 75% since Monday.
We're in freefall! Everyone's dumping our stock!
And you ask me for more...
Wait. Why is this phone ringing?
-You want me to... -Hello? Hi.
No. Get on the desk.
Hold on. Jamie, I'll call you back.
Yes, I know, I know, I know.
Christ, you have no idea what...
Yeah, I... These ribs are cold.
No, go ahead.
Yeah, give me the list. Okay, yeah.
-These ribs are cold. -Some week.
Three times the usual ribs.
ZACH: It's true, Lehman had been to dark places before,
and Dick Fuld had always pulled us back from the brink.
When he broke the disastrous news
to shareholders over a speakerphone,
he hoped the world would believe this was just another one of those times.
We have regretfully had to write down
our commercial real estate assets
from 40 billion
to a market value of 33 billion.
[SIGHS]
The good news is we have a strategy in place
which we feel will appease the markets.
We're currently fine-tuning a plan
to spin off our commercial real estate portfolio
into another company which, appropriately, will be called SpinCo.
There, it won't be a drag on the balance sheet.
ZACH: The market wasn't appeased.
There was a run on the bank. Everyone was dumping shares.
Our rating was even downgraded.
By Friday afternoon, we were gasping for breath.
DICK: I want everyone on message about this.
[INHALES]
Our situation is serious,
but it's not critical.
I repeat, the situation is not critical.
Bank of America wants us.
Barclays wants us. We can choose.
And whichever we choose will fill us with new air!
I need everyone to believe!
You're on the 31st floor, God damn it!
And I want this message to trickle downwards.
Can Mr McDade have a minute?
This better be good news, Bart.
Hank Paulson's flying up here.
Here?
The Federal Reserve. He's calling a meeting with the banking chiefs.
What for?
He wants them to bail us out.
He wants our competitors to bail us out?
He wants us to go to the Fed. He doesn't want us in the meeting.
He just wants us to be there, waiting.
-Somewhere. I don't know. -Is he kidding?
I'm not going to the Fed to sit outside
some goddamn boardroom while Paulson and my enemies decide my fate!
Look, Dick, he doesn't want you there.
He just wants us.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
[INAUDIBLE]
Thank you all for coming.
I know it must seem a rather cruel joke
for you to get a call at 5:00 on a Friday
asking you to come down to the Fed,
and I have no doubt you were all eager to start your weekends.
I'm sorry if you had plans.
I hope the presence of Treasury Secretary Paulson...
Jesus, Tim, we all know each other here.
...will impress upon you the gravity of the situation.
You've all watched Lehman take a nosedive.
They're not going to survive trading on Monday
and we wanted to ask for your...
Inspiration.
You're the best minds on Wall Street...
Tim, you know, I think you can cut the crap about now, hmm?
There's no public money for a bail out of Lehman Brothers.
[MEN GASP]
If we can't figure out a way to keep them standing,
they're going to be bankrupt when trading opens in Japan on Monday.
Now, what game are you playing?
There's no taxpayer money for this.
-MACK: Bullshit. -Not a penny.
It's not bullshit.
Well, if it's not bullshit, what the hell are we all doing here?
We'll arbitrate, we'll facilitate.
-We'll broker a deal... -We get it.
This is your hardball starting position.
HANK: This is not a starting position.
This is the position.
TIM: And even if the money were accessible,
-there would be no political will... -JAMIE: Political will?
Was there political will to bail out Fannie and Freddie?
-Things were different then. -Five days ago!
-[MEN CHUCKLING] -MACK: So...
What do you mean?
Arbitrate what? Facilitate what?
You brought us here to brainstorm?
Damn it, Jamie, are you the only one at this table with no exposure to Lehmans?
Or perhaps you've been too busy bombarding them with demands for collateral
to notice that they're going belly up!
-I have the right! -Of course.
I have a fiduciary obligation.
How dare you! How dare you...
TIM: Calm down, Jamie, he didn't mean...
He did mean it! One more comment like that...
-And why isn't Fuld here? -You want him here?
HANK: There's plenty of blame to go around.
But if they go down, we're all going to take a hit. [CLEARS THROAT]
You're hanging Lehman out to dry?
So, do it then.
I got a train to catch.
The West is fucked. We fucked it up.
Oh, not just you and me, all of us.
The West, it's done, it's over.
You wanna call it a game?
This is the game.
You want your great-grandchildren speaking Chinese?
The dollar's going to go.
We had Rome, then Europe, then this.
Us, this thing with cars and stereos and hula hoops,
and we screwed it all up.
We ran through it all, this stuff,
and we've come out on the other side where it's...
I don't know.
Where is this place?
Oh, yeah, we have this one weekend
where maybe we can come up with something
to hold it all together a little while longer!
KEN: It seems that you've got about $85 billion worth of troubled loans
which puts you at least 10 billion underwater.
DICK: Ken, you're Bank of America, you're retail.
Let my people go over the books with you.
KEN: We've been over the books.
DICK: Yeah, but if we go over them with you...
KEN: So that you can help us read them correctly?
Dick, we're not confused about your numbers.
-Your good assets aren't enough to... -Our "good assets"?
We're fucking Lehman Brothers!
Do you know how much this company's worth?
Well yes, Dick, I believe I do.
Have you been to Paulson?
We asked him to take $70 billion
-of the stink off your books, but... -70 billion?
Not my number, Dick. We have a board.
But Paulson's offering nothing.
He's trying to facilitate some sort of
private sector solution, but...
Ken, can you hold on just one...
Sure.
[TOY SQUEAKS]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
-I'm here. -I'll call you if anything changes.
If it's any comfort, Paulson is having another valuation done tonight.
-Another? Of my... -By a mixed, disinterested group...
Ken, don't decide anything yet.
I can get Paulson to turn around on this. I'll call you back.
-Zach! -I'm here.
I want you down at the Fed tonight.
Get in on that valuation. Get Paulson on the phone!
-SAMANTHA: I'm on it! -Mixed? Disinterested?
I bet he's got a team built from his cronies at Goldman Sachs.
Band of fucking villains!
Conspiring like Roman senators! Private sector... Move!
Paulson's out of reach.
[INHALES DEEPLY]
[EXHALES] Right.
[DIALLING]
[INHALES]
Harvey, it's Dick Fuld.
I need you in my office.
No, I'm afraid it can't.
[SIGHS]
So, there are two banks courting Lehman right now,
Bank of America, and Barclays in the UK.
But neither Ken Lewis nor Bob Diamond will touch it
while it's loaded down with toxic assets.
You want us to buy Lehman's toxic assets?
Well, maybe there's a way you could ring-fence them. Something.
Look, if you're telling us that you're not backstopping anyone any more,
we're going to be fighting for our lives.
But if you did decide to buy them, as a consortium...
That would be... Is that even legal? [SCOFFS]
Aren't you asking us to risk our shareholders'...
TIM: That's what you do every day of your lives, don't you?
Risk your shareholders' money.
Just running the numbers, if you took on these assets as a group,
you'd probably each take a smaller hit than you would on a Lehman bankruptcy.
We're not all exposed to Lehman in the same degree.
Oh, community spirit. That warms my heart.
You're all exposed.
And you're all in line in order of size.
Merrill is next, then Morgan Stanley.
-We're not next. What are you talking about? -MACK: That's just bullshit.
Have you read our quarterly statements, Hank?
Yes, John, I know your figures.
I even know what you spent on breakfast.
You're next in line, trust me.
Okay, so I want someone to buy our toxic assets. Huh?
Where does it end?
Where does it stop?
I mean, why them, and not us?
HANK: Yeah, why them?
Maybe we should just let them fail.
Maybe that'll be the play that washes away all our sins.
You decide.
What if we can't agree on a solution?
Then we have to start anticipating what will happen when Lehman does go bankrupt,
and contemplate how the rest of the world
can contain the damage.
I think Bank of America's free now.
-They're not courting Lehman? -No. I think that's dead.
They're liquid. They love our shop.
-They love retail. -It's good to have options.
I think we should make a move. I think you should give Lewis a call.
It's a bad time to look weak.
We'd only be selling a stake.
You know what people are gonna think if we sell a stake now?
-What? -It's a down payment, the thin end of the wedge.
Who cares what it looks like? Nobody's lending.
Lehman's falling apart because they can't borrow their operating costs.
John, we need a line of credit,
and we need it from Monday,
or I don't think we're gonna last out the week.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
The first thing you need to know is none of this is happening.
The second thing you need to know is
you don't discuss this with anyone.
If anyone saw you come in or sees you go out,
you were here to advise on the sale.
What's not happening?
We're not considering bankruptcy.
We do not need to prepare a Chapter 7 petition.
Barclays wants us, and Bank of America will come around.
As an exercise, however, we will put together a bare-bones filing
so that we know every strategic position has been covered.
And when do you not want this done by?
This weekend.
[SCOFFS]
[LAUGHS]
First of all, we don't have a team.
Second, you don't have a team.
Everyone's working on due diligence for the mergers.
Third, nobody can put together
a bankruptcy of this size in two days.
And fourth, the government's not going to let you go down.
Paulson's opening position is that we sink or swim.
[SCOFFS] Are you kidding?
[SCOFFS]
It would be a financial disaster
the likes of which the world has never seen before.
It would be like the American government itself going bankrupt.
It would be like the US dollar being rendered worthless
and everyone being told to start over
with goats and pebbles.
It would be like Rome selling the Vatican to the Japanese to make it a hotel,
and hiring the Pope as a bellboy.
[SCOFFS] It's just a fantasy.
It's a "through the looking glass" world.
It's something from the book of Revelations.
DICK: "And he cried mightily with a strong voice,
"saying, 'Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
"'and is become the habitation of devils,
"'and a hold of every foul spirit,
"'and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird...'"
"For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
"and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her
"and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich
"through the abundance of her delicacies."
[CLOCK TICKING]
Okay.
We've only got a few hours to value this portfolio.
This is gonna be your best friend.
All right, guys, I know it looks like a lot,
but if we put on our best heads, we'll...
[ALL MURMURING]
A lot of people ask me how the subprime mortgage crisis brought down Wall Street.
Well, my sister knows. That's how she got her house.
First, we found ourselves a house.
Then we found a mortgage broker.
The waitress down there at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant said he could work miracles.
So, we handed him our pay slips and he made corrections
using a free programme you get from the Internet which changes pictures.
A lot of people use it to make themselves look skinnier or prettier,
but we just used it to make ourselves look rich,
which I'm sure the Lord would think was not as bad
because you're not changing the looks God gave you.
You're just changing what you earn, which God allows anyway,
because if he didn't, then nobody would be able to apply for a different job.
Then, the broker phoned somebody called "a lender".
Now, she barely even looked at our paperwork.
She just pushed "send" button and our forms were approved
and off to New York where people in white coats
worked throughout the night, putting all the documents into different kinds of piles.
Then they send these documents
on to the bankers, like my brother.
And from now on, they're called "securities,"
even though nothing about them has really changed
and they used to just be called "mortgage contracts".
Then, once they're called "securities,"
they're a product that you can sell,
like...like a table, or makeup.
Now, here's the weird thing they do.
The bankers pay a man to give the securities a grade, like in school.
Now they're called CDOs.
And the bankers, they buy and sell these
back and forth to each other for some reason.
Then they mix them up some more,
staple a few together,
and send them back to the man for a new rating.
And all the bankers, they keep buying and they keep selling the CDOs,
and they keep chopping them up and putting them back together in different ways,
and selling them for double or triple what they paid for them,
and every time they do this, the CDO gets thicker and thicker
and that rating gets weirder and weirder.
[TELEPHONES RINGING]
Now, the bankers liked the CDOs so much,
they wanted more and more of them,
and they didn't care if somebody wasn't able to pay their mortgages
because they just wanted the loan papers to call securities
and then to turn into CDOs
'cause they're gonna sell them just as fast as they could anyway
and make a huge whopping profit overnight.
So, they didn't care what the paper's worth.
I mean, paper really ain't worth nothing
unless two crazy people's willing to pay each other for them.
But when a lot of people didn't pay their mortgages,
some people remembered that the houses and loans
were somehow connected to the CDOs in some funny legal way,
and that this was bad,
then nobody wanted to buy the CDOs any more.
So, suddenly people owned and couldn't get rid of a lot of very, very expensive things
that were really only worthless paper
that was somehow connected to things that weren't even there.
[DOG BARKING]
[WIND WHISTLING]
[SIGHS]
[SCOFFS]
-What? -This.
We have some of that, but we've marked it at 75.
-We marked it at 90. -And we're really...
-I know. -Yeah, aggressive.
And look at this. We value this at 43.
You remember how you valued it?
-[CHUCKLES] You've marked it at 60. That's... -I didn't personally.
Yeah, but you're here. You're the one who's here.
I'm here, but I'm not.
Look, you're... What do you mean, you're here but you're not?
I mean, you know, officially.
[SIGHS]
[MOBILE VIBRATING]
Greg.
I wanted your first thought of the day to be Bank of America.
-I wanted the first words you heard to be "call"... -I'm still in bed.
Now, we need to make our intentions clear.
Unambiguous, using words of one syllable.
We want to discuss a deal today.
With a line of credit available Monday.
We're so different, you and I.
You know I come from the school of soft-sell.
-We don't have time to soft-sell. -It's not a question of time.
Soft-sell is an energy.
It can be done quickly.
[SIGHS] Now, I'm going to get up,
I'm gonna have a coffee before I have another thought.
When you're watching Bart make his pitch today, just imagine, next week, being in his place.
What if we save Lehman? Have you thought about that?
What if we all pool our resources and rescue them?
What happens to the next company, the next one up in size?
It's us, John. You know it's us.
Can you believe there's nowhere to get ribs in the city
this time of the morning? What's the report?
Uh, they've just finished going through the books.
What's the overall feeling?
Um... Philosophical.
-Is the Barclays team there? -Nowhere we can see them.
You mean, you haven't even seen Diamond yet?
I know he's in New York.
I know he's in New York! Is he at the Fed?
There's a lot of work to be done before we have something to show him.
He's probably sleeping.
Probably? Thanks. Probably. Probably!
Hey! Hey!
Samantha! I want you to double security.
I want someone at every elevator, on every floor.
And triple the guard at the front!
-What happened? -Now!
Security?
BART: So the idea is that
we spin off another company, a "bad bank,"
where we can place all of our toxic assets.
We're gonna call it SpinCo.
And we just need the shortfall funded by outside investors.
We just shift $33 billion of real estate
into the new company, a "good bank,"
which we are gonna call CleanCo.
[ALL SCOFFING]
-JAMIE: And who would control SpinCo? -We would.
[LAUGHS] Go on, take it.
Now, Jamie, we need to set aside our bad debts
so that we can carry on doing what we do best.
-Which is? -[CHUCKLES] Jamie. Jamie.
Come on, Jamie. We're all friends, huh?
Here's 10 bucks for a happy ending.
MACK: If these valuations are accurate,
there's a $15 billion hole.
Accurate? They were done overnight with a pot of coffee.
If Paulson had let me put together a team...
Right, yeah. The blind leading the blind.
Oh, sure, you do everything by the book, don't you, Blankfein?
[CHUCKLES] Tell me, Jamie, could you value a CDO?
No.
-But I know a man who could. -No you don't, no.
You know a man who'll stamp triple-A on your ass
if you get him a floor seat at the Lakers game.
You can't value a CDO?
LLOYD: Whoever says he can is full of shit.
We might as well pick a number out of the air.
How much do you need for the bad bank?
-25 billion. -What?
Last week, it was worth 40 billion,
Wednesday, it was 33,
and last night, it was valued at 21.
If we hurry and buy it now, we should be able to lose all our money by Friday.
Our portfolio is supported by eight billion in equity,
and that is a conservative estimate.
Conservative? Who taught you to be conservative, McDade? Dick Fuld?
Conservative... Where does this end?
What happens when Merrill goes down?
We're not going down.
Thain, if you stepped away from the Bloomberg cameras
long enough to read your own balance sheet,
you'd see it was as bad as Dick Fuld's.
LLOYD: No, no, no, no.
Today, we're here to deal with Lehman Brothers.
Whatever happens next, maybe Paulson won't be so...
-What? -Intransigent.
We won't be needing government money.
I'm afraid I have to excuse myself.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
Ken, it's John Thain.
Mr Thain, to what do I owe this pleasure?
-I'm at the Fed in New York. -Yes, I heard something was going on down there.
I heard you've closed the book on Lehman.
My due diligence team is flying back this afternoon.
Perhaps, they should stay.
Meaning?
Perhaps, you'd like to discuss other opportunities.
This sounds like the sort of chat we should be having in person.
Yes. I believe it is.
I have Dick Fuld on the other line.
Tell him I've left for New York.
I believe he's in the air already. Any message?
No, he's got my numbers.
Look, if we're going to get Barclays,
we need to buy it at a premium to the market value.
-I agree. -I think we should pay the 25.
You're all crazy!
Bart, Ian, could you give us a few?
Yeah, okay.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
I think we should backstop Lehman.
So, they overvalued their portfolio.
We all try to maximise our perceived value.
You wrote the book, Blankfein.
JAMIE: But I think we should structure the deal in such a way
that the mortgages pay us back over time.
Yes. But also,
now we know that none of us is too big to fail.
None of us is too precious
that the government is gonna step in at the last minute and save our asses.
Did he say asses or assets?
I think we might also talk about structuring
a rainy day fund for those of us who...
Survive.
-Samantha, get... -Yes?
Don't worry. I'll do it.
[DIALLING]
[MOBILE RINGING]
Paulson.
[INHALES DEEPLY]
Hank Paulson.
It's Dick.
[SIGHS]
Yeah, I know, Dick, we helped Bear,
and they're a lot smaller than you are.
Got any new material?
Have you guys come up with anything?
Nothing legal.
If you say it would be illegal to help us
because we're under-collateralised...
I'd be off your Christmas list?
I think you do what you do.
I think you get something in your head...
Just like you do.
I think, maybe the two of us should learn to dither a little more.
This is a beautiful old bank.
25,000 jobs.
-History. -Oh, that history.
We're all made of the same stuff.
How... How can we just be cut apart from the rest?
It doesn't make sense.
I don't know if we aren't making sense now
or if we're just starting to make sense.
You can't say we've run out of money.
This isn't the kind of money you can run out of.
Oh, you're right. There's money out there.
There's money all over the place.
It's just not so obvious how to get your hands on it. That's all.
-Hank... -Not to say, you didn't get close though.
Blackstone, Colony, JE Robert.
Why jump to sell just after a dip in the share price?
And Korea.
The money was on the table, Dick.
Only you never thought it was enough.
You could've solved your liquidity problem
right there, but no,
you were just sure that your luck was going to change.
"If I only hold out one more trading day."
You were holding a pair of eights, Dick,
and you bet the farm on the river card.
If I thought there was a note of superiority in your...
Time came when you should have folded, and you didn't.
Something in you told you to take the leap.
[SCOFFS]
You were remarkable.
The blindness was exquisite.
The problem is
we're not dealing in months any more.
Now, it's a matter of hours, minutes.
Let me ask you this.
Is what you're doing now,
is this the thing that's most likely,
when you look back in a year, to make you say...
"Shit.
"With what little we knew, we did it,
"we put the pieces back together.
"I couldn't see the future, but I just
"had that luck and it all fell together just right."
Is that what you're gonna say?
No.
No, I don't think anything I do this weekend
is going to make me say that.
What would you do,
if you were me?
Don't pick at the bone yard.
Bank of America's dead.
You've got Barclays.
That's what you've got.
Barclays.
[CALL DISCONNECTS]
[EXHALES]
[WATER RUNNING]
[SCOFFS]
[EXHALES]
They agreed to 25.
[SIGHS] And what is Barclays saying?
They're reviewing some of the initial deal points,
but their chiefs agreed to 25!
-Dick, it's a victory for us. -Fuck the chiefs!
How did Barclays react?
We didn't see anybody from Barclays.
-Diamond wasn't at the Fed? -Yeah, he could've been there.
You didn't notice if Bob Diamond was at the Fed?
I heard somebody laughing. It sounded like his laugh.
Where did you hear the laughing?
[SIGHS] Well, sort of all over.
[SIGHS]
Get back to the Fed. Tell me when Diamond shows.
[DOOR CLOSES]
I understand you sold more than $30 billion worth of CDOs
at 22 cents on the dollar.
It was a risk-reduction strategy,
but it left us well capitalised.
If you were well capitalised, you wouldn't be here.
But what I want to know is, what other time bombs have you got on the books?
Everyone has risky assets.
But you want me to buy your company as is.
I'm going to need to know where the dirty laundry is buried.
[CHUCKLES]
Uh, we don't want to sell Merrill Lynch.
We want to offer you a 10% stake.
But we want to buy it outright.
That's our only position.
I've always loved your shop.
I love how you bring Wall Street to New Mexico.
We're both retail.
-We're a good fit. -I only took over Merrill nine months ago.
I didn't take it over to sell it.
You see those pictures?
They're what I call "real art".
They would form the kind of exhibitions Bank of America might once have bankrolled,
but now we find ourselves funding modern art as well,
art that can insult everything
you and I have worked our whole lives
to make sacred.
Some of it to me looks like a road accident
or a human being turned inside out.
But those that matter, culturally, I mean,
like to stand back, arms folded,
brows furrowed in just the right way,
assessing the disturbed minds of psychopaths
and getting from this a grim kind of satisfaction,
I freely admit,
remains unavailable to my own sensibilities.
The Judas Kiss.
Exquisite, isn't it?
But time has moved on, Mr Thain.
The brand has to move on.
The world is different now.
We are currently financing an exhibition of paintings
by Francis Bacon at the Tate Museum in London.
Starts today.
Do you know what his paintings look like?
[SCOFFS]
I leave that sort of thing to my wife.
Our name, Bank of America, is on that exhibition.
History is happening, Mr Thain,
right here, this weekend.
No one is going to blame you for keeping up with it.
[SIGHS]
[EXHALES]
[ELEVATOR PINGS]
[ELEVATOR DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR OPENS]
HANK: Is that Diamond? TIM: No.
Well, I hope he looks pleased when he reads this.
-I hope he doesn't. -Why?
Because if he looks pleased,
it might mean he intends to pull Barclays out of the game.
Whereas if he's poker-faced,
it probably means he's come to play hardball.
Some people look poker-faced even when they're happy.
Some people distrust ecstasy.
So, if he goes for these deal points,
you think our chances are pretty good then, don't you?
There's a lot of other stuff to get through,
but this term sheet looking the way it does,
that's one gigantic problem off our hands.
I'm glad you think so.
To me, there's either getting rid of the whole problem
or being stuck with the whole problem.
There's nothing in between.
[DOOR OPENS]
It's Diamond. He's coming.
I hear you're talking to Ken Lewis.
[SCOFFS]
Um, we've had an informal, um...
Don't worry about it.
We don't need you to stay if your time can be better spent elsewhere.
Thank you.
If you can work out a deal with him,
it's one less thing we have to worry about.
The world is going to hell in a hand basket.
AIG is in the building.
They're haemorrhaging liquidity.
By Wednesday, they're gonna be worth minus five billion.
[SCOFFS]
Jesus, these numbers.
Twenty years ago, you never heard them.
Are you going to help them?
AIG.
We have to.
Their credit default swaps
insure half the western banking system.
If we didn't bail them out,
all that is solid melts into air.
I'll go and see Lewis.
Hank,
I'm going to push for a good price.
[CHUCKLES]
I'd expect nothing less.
Oh, and, John.
Just so we're clear,
I'm not telling you what to do.
-Oh! -Rise and shine to a brand-new day.
[GASPS]
I thought I was dreaming.
-We got it? -They agreed to the terms.
I heard Bob Diamond even had a little twinkle in his eye.
-He agreed to the terms? -I heard he liked the terms,
-but that's just the first hurdle, Dick. -We got it.
-[CHUCKLES] -Of course, we fucking got it!
We're the survivors, aren't we?
Who wouldn't want Lehman Brothers!
At this price, for Barclays,
it's like Christmas fucking day!
-Samantha! -I'm here.
Get me some new clothes. Zach!
I wouldn't go out.
-There's press down there. -Still?
They're propagating.
Zach!
Go and get rid of the press.
Parasites. Tell them nothing!
Give them nothing, watch them make something out of it.
We'll have a laugh about it later. Go!
Maybe you should turn on the news.
-Just for... -Why should I watch the news?
We know what's happening. They don't know what's happening. Clothes!
-We could accept $35. -$35?
I know you've had difficulties, but...
I was prepared to pay at least a few thousand dollars
for a firm like Merrill Lynch.
$35 a share.
Well, I suppose I could convince my board to rise to 25.
I suppose, with gargantuan effort,
I might convince my board to drop to 32.
Why don't we just cut the crap and state the numbers we'll accept?
29.
-27. -29.
28.
29.
I stay where I am. I like where I am.
My title will be President of Global Banking,
Securities and Wealth Management.
I'm sure your title won't be my board's chief concern.
We'll need an answer by midnight.
You don't have to worry, Mr Thain.
We have no intentions of taking your stripes away from you.
Your face is part of the package.
Call in the board for 12:00 noon.
We'll need to ratify Barclays and I want food.
Catering, goodies, ribs, meat,
champagne, a spread.
You brought us back from the brink.
This place is my life.
Did you think I was going to let it go down?
Where else would I go?
What else could I do?
Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.
It's hard not to agree with you on that score.
Well, then I think we've covered just about everything, don't you?
Oh. Don't worry.
I think we both have our hands tied on this one.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
[DOOR OPENS]
[SIGHS]
Well, gentlemen, I'm afraid Barclays is dead.
[ALL MURMURING]
By British law, Barclays can't guarantee Lehman's obligations without a shareholder vote.
-So why can't they vote? -HANK: They can.
But not until Tuesday.
Can't the British government make an exception for just a couple of days?
They're under no obligation to do that.
I thought I could get Darling to issue a waiver, but I couldn't.
But...
Why can't the Fed just backstop us till the vote,
I mean, if it's only two days away?
There is no public money for a backstop.
Have I said that before?
We're at the end.
The deal is dead. Now, you need to talk to your board.
[SIGHS]
[INAUDIBLE]
Harvey, they want you down the Fed.
They want us to file now.
You're asking me to draw up the biggest bankruptcy in history
and you want it done by midnight?
I heard you were good at what you do.
[SCOFFS] A reckless bankruptcy is going to be Armageddon.
We have a programme.
We have a series of press releases
which we firmly believe will calm the markets.
Press releases?
Lehman has assets worth $639 billion.
That's higher than the GDP
of almost every country in the world!
I know all the arguments against this!
I've been on the phone with Dick for six months
trying to get him to sell,
but the price was never high enough for him!
He thought he had all the time in the world. Well, he didn't.
He thought he was playing with the casino's money.
Well, he wasn't.
That's enough now! We've got to clean up this mess.
Somebody had to fail.
Lehman Brothers has failed.
[SIGHS]
[EXHALES]
[PHONE RINGING]
Mr Lewis's phone.
Donna, it's Dick Fuld.
Is, um, Ken by any chance...
No, he isn't.
Look, I don't think there's any point repeatedly calling the house.
Mr Lewis has your messages.
I'm sure if he wants to call you, he will.
[PHONE RINGING]
[SIGHS]
[RINGING CONTINUES]
[CAMERAS CLICKING]
REPORTER: Can you please tell us what's happening?
ZACH: I read somewhere that writing
was originally invented to keep track of debt.
If that's how history began, then maybe when we wrote off
this giant mountain of debt, history came to an end.
It was definitely the end of history for some.
National economies collapsed.
Ireland and Italy nearly went bankrupt.
Iceland did.
It was a good thing George Bush legalised sleep deprivation
because our Chief Financial Officer,
who hadn't slept in three days,
had to stay awake to approve the bankruptcy petition.
And it had to be done before midnight.
Some of us expected big changes, a new age.
Some of us are still waiting.
There was a well-known con artist who said,
"The reason some people can be conned
"is because they want something for nothing.
"Well, I give them nothing for something."
There was something else he said.
"People are 99% animal, 1% human.
"And it's the human part that causes all the trouble."
[SCOFFS] You'd think it would be the other way around.
[SIGHS]