Economic Crisis in the Era of Globalization

On September 15, 2008, America's fourth-largest investment bank, the 158-year-old Lehman Brothers announced it would file for bankruptcy protection with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York according to Chapter 11 of the American Bankruptcy Act. The global financial giant with a total of USD693 billion worth of assets and USD613 billion of debt had survived the turmoil of the 19th century railroad company closure, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the collapse of the capital management market at the turn of the century, and numerous other trials, yet came tumbling down in this sudden crisis, becoming the largest case of financial bankruptcy in the US history. This triggered another wave of economic trouble in the US subprime mortgage market with the fall of Bear Stearns in the summer of 2007. Following this, America's third-largest investment bank Merrill Lynch, was acquired by the Bank of America, the world's largest insurance company, and American International Group was brought to the brink of bankruptcy. This series of events raised the curtain on the new century's global economic crisis.