> Are you really sure Lehman's bonds went to zero? The official story is that market essentially froze, that no one would buy. I'd have bought everything I co

> Are you really sure Lehman's bonds went to zero? The official story is that market essentially froze, that no one would buy. I'd have bought everything I could get my hands on at fractions of a cent (and possibly more), but they didn't ask me. (After they let individuals back in, I thought that all of the bargains were gone, so I didn't go bottom fishing. Big mistake. The great deals were gone, but there were still some opportunities left even when I got around to looking.) The money that left with the derivatives may have kept the bonds at 70-80 cents. Unless Reserve Primary was 100% Lehman, that might have been enough. > As for the derivatives, when it came time to settle them, as widely predicted they mostly canceled out with only (from memory) 6 billion US$ changing hands. Yup, but no one knew that when the derivatives were being made whole while everyone else waited to see what was left.