My brother works for Lehman Brothers. Worked for Lehman Brothers.

They've been on pins and needles all weekend. Last night his boss called and confirmed the Chapter 11 rumors. "We may not have a lot of time in the building tomorrow morning. You might want to go get your stuff now."  So at 11pm last night my brother trotted across town to go pick up up his ties.

I called him to say I was sorry he was losing his job. He was being hardcore and manly. "Can't do anything about it right?" He and I both know that there are a lot of people a lot worse off out of this. His boss has a newborn and mortgage payments.

Still. I feel terrible for him. He's my little brother. If there's one thing my brother loves, its the idea of money. And analyzing the data that goes along with that. And hanging out with people who are into that finance nerd shit. Networking and wearing suits and getting bonuses. That's basically what he's wanted to do since he was a kid. Lehman was right up his alley too. Old. Venerable. Encouraging of a bold yet classic sartorial style for their employees. He was doing pretty well. He didn't like his job in operations, but he was looking towards an internal transfer to analysis and the answer he got was "Sure, we'd totally hire you, except, uh, we're probably gonna crumble. So lets hold off."

I'm sure he'll find something else. He's a smart guy, he hustles, he has savings (WAY more than me), works his connections. He's young and debt free. He'll be fine, eventually.

But the whole thing is still pretty pathetic. For him. For Lehman. Merril Lynch. The country...