Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves

by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Del Missier began to explain to Buffett why the guarantee was so important. “If Lehman trades dollars for yen with somebody, that bank needs to know that Lehman is going to deliver the dollars before they deliver the yen,” he told Buffett. “If there are worries that they’re going to be able to settle that trade, the whole thing is going to unravel.”