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EVEN by the standards of the worst financial crisis for at least a generation the events of Sunday Spetember14th and the day before were extraordinary. The weekend began with hopes that a deal could be struck with or without government backing to save Lehman Brothers America’s fourth-largest investment bank. It ended with Lehman’s set for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the bank preparing to wind itself up after those efforts failed. Other vulnerable financial giants scrambled to sell themselves or raise enough capital to stave off a similar fate. Merrill Lynch the third-biggest investment bank sold itself to Bank of America (BofA) an erstwhile Lehman suitor in a $50 billion all-stock deal. American International Group (AIG) brought forward a potentially life-saving overhaul and went cap-in-hand to the Federal Reserve. EVEN by the standards of the worst financial crisis for at least a generation the events of Sunday Spetember14th and the day before were extraordinary. The weekend began with hopes that a deal could be struck with or without government backing to save Lehman Brothers America’s fourth-largest investment bank. It ended with Lehman’s set forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the bank preparing to wind itself up after those efforts failed. Other vulnerable financial giants scrambled to sell themselves or raise enough capital to stave off a similar fate. Merrill Lynch the third-biggest investment bank sold itself to Bank of America (BofA) an erstwhile Lehman suitor in a $50 billionall-stock deal. American International Group (AIG) brought forward a potentially life-saving overhaul and went cap-in-hand to the Federal Reserve. | 
