Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

The best available contemporary evidence, rather than the self-justifications that the actors fashioned for themselves after the catastrophic consequences of Lehman’s failure became apparent, suggests that the basic constraint on the Lehman rescue was Paulson’s refusal, from the outset, to consider another bailout.38 British chancellor Alistair Darling was in frequent contact with New York throughout the critical weekend. His perspective is telling: “What was worrying was that it was becoming more evident that the US Treasury was reluctant to provide the financial support to make the deal work. I was not entirely surprised. . . . I didn’t think he had enough political capital to persuade the Republicans to nationalize another bank.”

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