Lehman Brothers was left to go bankrupt, with devastating effects on the global economy because the US Congress – under pressure from voters a few weeks before the election – refused to provide the US administration with the funds necessary for the rescue.
That refusal, which was also confirmed during the vote on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a few days after the failure of Lehman, even though the markets were already falling, fully reflected the deep feelings of American taxpayers who did not want to pay out of their own pockets to save a financial institution that had hitherto enriched its shareholders and managers beyond measure.