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

The report did, however, include some new revelations that could still lead to government action. Its most interesting and controversial discovery concerned an accounting practice called Repo 105, which the public was learning about for the first time. As the report explained it, “Lehman did not disclose . . . that it had been using an accounting device (known within Lehman as ‘Repo 105’) to manage its balance sheet—by temporarily removing approximately $50 billion of assets from the balance sheet at the end of the first and second quarters of 2008. . . .Lehman’s own accounting personnel described Repo 105 transactions as an ‘accounting gimmick’ and a ‘lazy way of managing the balance sheet as opposed to legitimately meeting balance sheet targets at quarter end.’”