What pushed Lehman over the edge were collateral calls by anxious lenders. Given the falling value of its stock, J.P. Morgan demanded large postings of collateral to back up daytime triparty repo risks. By Tuesday, September 9, allowing for liens on its assets, Lehman’s liquidity pool was down to $22 billion. Two days later, on Thursday, September 11, Lehman was still posting $150 billion as collateral in the repo market.
