This hurricane season, one storm has hit after another. It is the same in financial markets. Just as they were basking in the dramatic rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, America's giant mortgage agencies, a fresh storm was brewing over Wall Street. The pummelled shares of Lehman Brothers, led by the pugnacious Dick Fuld, lost almost half their value between September 8th and 10th. Suddenly, six months after the loss of Bear Stearns, loomed the prospect of another big investment bank buckling. Shares of Washington Mutual (WaMu), a battered savings-and-loan bank and the nation's largest, also tumbled, amid fears that the imperilled are running out of rescuers.rnLehman's latest problems stemmed from the desertion of a South Korean suitor, undermining its efforts to raise enough capital to ride out big losses on property, mortgages and leveraged loans. It sought to limit speculation by moving forward news of a $3.9 billion loss for the third quarter, much worse than expected, and unveiling a number of strategic moves. These included spinning off up to $30 billion of commercial-property assets into an independent, publicly traded company. It also said it was close to agreeing on the sale of a majority stake in its prized fund-management unit, including Neuberger Berman.
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