A report into the collapse of Lehman Brothers criticises senior executives and auditor Ernst & Young for serious lapses that led to the firm’s collapse. The report says Lehman was insolvent for weeks before it went bankrupt, sparking a global financial meltdown.

It accuses management of “actionable balance sheet manipulation” and using accounting tricks to hide debts. Ernst & Young said that its last audit of Lehman was “fairly presented” according to accounting rules.

The collapse of the 158-year-old investment bank in September 2008 was the world’s largest bankruptcy. Wall Street, the City of London, and the US and UK governments tried to organise a rescue, fearing – rightly – that Lehman’s failure would set off a chain reaction around the globe… Read more »

Yesterday, prompted by a link Paul Burns provided on my One day that shook the world thread, I did a Google search for reviews of Robert Service’s biography of Trotsky. Not surprisingly, many such reviews were on Trotskyist websites and all the Trotskyist reviews were scathing of Service’s book, including one on the Workers’ Liberty site. Read more »

This is what the Federal Nats MP Luke Hartsuyker is saying in his first 2010 e-newsletter sent this week:
"Many tertiary students have started their 2010 studies uncertain about the entitlement to Independent Youth Allowance and Commonwealth scholarships."
Of course they have Luke - you and your mates voted to block passage of the government bill which would have established the guidelines and payment schedule for these entitlements!

Possum has obtained the polling conducted by UMR for six Queensland unions on the impact of Anna Bligh’s privatisation plans on Labor’s vote. It’s not good news for Bligh, and he suggests, not good news for Kevin Rudd either:

These figures suggest that the Bligh government’s asset sale plan will reduce the ALP’s two-party preferred vote share at the federal election in Queensland by up to about 2%. That is a significant impediment to Labor winning and retaining seats in Rudd’s home state.

His conclusion is interesting: Read more »

Could there be any clearer demonstration of precisely why the State Government refused to take the train network back from private operators? They’re there for one primary reason, and that is, as someone to blame:

Yesterday the Premier was less enthusiastic. ”They need to lift their performance,” he said. ”They have got an agreement with the government and that agreement is set out in writing and I believe they should be meeting it.”

Mr Brumby said Metro had to be given ”a chance to settle in and get on top of the job. But they’ve had, what, four months now and they are not meeting their performance targets.”

You hired them. The buck stops with you. Want more control in order to solve these problems? Take responsibility again. Stop hiding behind private companies.

I hope the travelling public doesn’t buy the deflection. It’s your fault, and your fault alone. Read more »