Will Dick Fuld (who Woods plays in the movie) heed this advice and set the DVR?

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Sayeth Chaz:

“Fuld portrayed Lehman as a firm that was fighting successfully to survive. With those words of encouragement, some investors lent Lehman money, others bought its stock or decided not to sell, thinking the situation was going to get better. Given what later happened, that sounds like an open-and-shut case of securities fraud, with greedy Wall Streeters caught lying to public investors, right? Well, no.

I’m told the SEC is under intense pressure to bring a case against someone at Lehman, whether it’s Fuld or another top exec — and having a tough time coming up with conclusive evidence they knew they were lying about what they were saying about Lehman’s chances. And if they can’t prove that, they don’t have a fraud case…As for the accounting gimmick Lehman used just before its ’08 implosion, it was approved by the firm’s auditor, Ernst & Young — which OK’d it because other firms had used similar techniques to mitigate losses, without a peep from regulators. In other words, Fuld really did think Lehman would survive — because in the past, with the help of the feds, it had. But…if Fuld “had” to know better, then what about all those politicians and bureaucrats who encouraged the creation of mortgage-backed securities, which were at the heart of the collapse? What about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac execs who let banks hand out loans to almost everyone? What about the Federal Reserve and Treasury officials, under Republicans and Democrats, who stepped in and mitigated Wall Street losses time after time, creating an environment where CEOs like Fuld believed there was no consequence to risk-taking? If it’s a crime to help trigger a disaster by getting things wrong, a lot of people belong in jail.”

Executives And The 2008 Collapse [NYP]

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According to Charlie Gasparino, who’s been tailing him.

Dick Fuld had been keeping a low profile even as he set up his own advisory firm with an office in midtown Manhattan. But sources with direct knowledge of Fuld’s business activities said things have been picking up steam in recent weeks. He has had at least one meeting with financial executives involving a private equity transaction, these people say, adding that Fuld appeared unconcerned about the multiple investigations into his actions during Lehman’s 2008 demise.

“It was bizarre,” said one person with direct knowledge of the matter. “He acted as if he has nothing to worry about.”

As Lehman Inquiry Drags On, Fuld’s Business Takes Off

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Here’s what the Don said last night on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” when asked about mingling with sauced up members of the business community:

“There’s a banker — and obviously I’m not going to mention names…I’ll never forget a very respected banker, highly respected. And he was making a speech at the Waldorf Astoria. And he was very tipsy, very — and shortly thereafter, he was just totally stone cold drunk. There were probably 2,000 people, 1,500 people at this dinner. It was a very big event. And we carried him out on his back. We carried him out literally on his back and — And I never felt the same way about him.

Trump went on to say he can’t even look at the guy anymore and that he’s “lost all respect” for him. Choking back tears**, Trump wouldn’t say who his fallen hero is or if he had to hold the guy’s hair back as he vomited on the street corner but he did offer one more clue.

“He just retired. But he was a very powerful banker, one of the biggest.”

So! Any guesses?

PIERS MORGAN ASKS DONALD TRUMP ABOUT POLITICS, FAMILY & FIXING THE ECONOMY [CNN via Business Insider]

**Guessing.

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“There was no capital hole. Lehman had the capital. We needed the liquidity.” [DI]

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As you may have heard, Wall Street is not, lets just call it, the most “popular” place these days. This is especially true if you’re currently in or running for office. Gotta give the people what they want and what the people want is, for example, you to very publicly and hurtfully break off your bro-mance with anyone in the upper echelons of the Street, no matter how charming, handsome, and sweet they may be. The fact that he was once a managing director at Lehman Brothers is naturally something that Republican Gubernatorial hopeful John Kasich’s opponents are throwing in his face but it wasn’t until recently that they uncovered a relationship that could ruin his chances. It’s not with a hooker and it’s doesn’t involve a source who identified Kasich servicing a hobo in the men’s room of the Port Authority, though it does involve a Dick.

“Fuld is an awesome guy,” Kasich told New York Observer for a September, 2001, story. “He is the kind of guy you want to go into battle with,” the article quoted Kasich as saying. “He is a great leader.”

After Lehman’s demise, Fuld quickly emerged as one of the chief villains of the financial crisis. He was even rumored to have been punched in the face while exercising in the Lehman gym around the time of the company’s bankruptcy. Kasich backed away a little from his association with Fuld during his Reuters interview, saying: “I called him a good leader because of what he did after 9-11.”

Kasich, though, was interviewed for the story before September 11 and the piece made no mention of the attacks, which destroyed Kasich’s New York office.

“Fuld had his thing to do and I had my thing to do,” Kasich added.

Shorting Wall Street On The Campaign Trail [Reuters]

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You’d really be helping them out and apparently they’ve got high hopes, so it’d be yet another kick in the pants for yet another thing to fail. Do it for Dick. [CNBC]

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Former Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld was just spotted walking by himself in Times Square near 42nd Street. Is he looking for office space or just paying a visit to his old firm?

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More from Dick Fuld’s bizarre testimony yesterday in front of the House Financial Services Committee.

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Apparently not. The former Lehman CEO devolved into long soliloquies about the history of the bankrupt firm, took long pauses and seemed generally delusional in his testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee this afternoon. Here’s a recap of Fuld’s bizarreness:

The most peculiar answer: “We were risk averse,” Fuld says in response to a question about why the firm failed. He chalks the losses up to “terrible timing” on commercial real estate investments. Still, at the end, Fuld says there was “no capital hole.” “We could not convince the world about the [good] position we were in.” He also blamed naked short sellers, again.

Asked if 30 to 1 leverage seemed risk averse to him, Fuld said 30 to 1 was a misconception. (It seems as though he really believes this.)

At the end of his his opening statement, Fuld looks up from his prepared remarks, takes off his glasses and says: “Given all that has been said, I would like to add that I am aware that one day we had a firm and the next day we did not and a lot of people got hurt with that and I have to live with that. ”

Asked if he should have known about the Repo 105 transactions, Fuld said “there was no reason why I would know about those sale transactions” because they were merely sales of government securities. “I was focused on less liquid assets: commercial real estate, residential mortgage, leveraged loans. I was focused on what could impact our capital. Government securities do not impact our capital.”

After a question about what caused the demise of Lehman Brothers, Fuld pauses for an uncomfortable amount of time and then begins a history lesson on Lehman, which goes back 150 years and leads up to to the firm’s IPO in 1994 before he’s cut off by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, who asks him to make his answer more succinct. But Fuld keeps fumbling and going back in time talking about how great the firm was. Kanjorski interjects again: “I haven’t heard you take responsibility” and “Don’t give me an advertisement” for the firm.

Later in the hearing we finally get a sort of answer out of Fuld about the mistake he made: “We did not understand the contagion of one asset class to the next and failed to see the depth of the crisis,” he sad. Oh yeah, and the firm “had too much commercial real estate,” he adds.

One representative asks Fuld if he gambles. After another long pause he says, “Not in the way you’re asking.”

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