The Financial Meltdown Hits Meetings

The financial services industry, first under siege in 2007 with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, then reeling from the collapse of Bear Stearns last spring, had really hit new depths by press time in mid-October. The collapse of Lehman Brothers, the takeover of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, the failures of AIG and Washington Mutual, and the purchase of the troubled bank Wachovia by Wells Fargo were stepping stones on the way to a global crisis that hit financial services firms hard.