Afternoon Must-Read: Ryan Avent: Crises: They Let It Happen

Ryan Avent: Crises: They let it happen: “THE argument that American officials lacked the capability…

…or authority to save Lehman Brothers—and, potentially, to spare the world the most wrenching financial crisis since the 1930s—never really withstood close scrutiny…. This morning the New York Times publishes a remarkable piece of reporting drawing on accounts from insiders at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who were there during the crisis of 2008. The Fed officials say that they were tasked to conduct analyses of Lehman’s books in preparation for some sort of rescue, and came back with figures that could easily have justified a bail-out. But their results scarcely received a hearing…