THERE IS plenty of greed, but not much glory, in Ken Auletta’s intricate account of the decline and fall of Lehman Brothers. Until it was auctioned off to American Express in 1984, Lehman Brothers was Wall Street’s oldest continuing partnership, and arguably the nation’s premier investment banking firm.
Under the Counter
Where’s the capital capital of the world? Just ask Luther Hodges, the president of National Bank of Washington. Two years ago Hodges put together a syndicate of nearly 100 investors and orchestrated the acquisition of NBW from the United Mine Workers. The biggest chunk of capital for the deal came from an investor in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.