By early June it was too late to start worrying about all that. And in theory it should never have been necessary to do so. When Dick Fuld, Lehman's former chief executive, was interviewed by Euromoney magazine in July 2005, he explained why.
“I expect everyone at the firm to be a risk manager,” Mr Fuld declared. “All 12 of us [on the executive committee] are focused on all parts of the business. It's all about risk management. If it's just me then we're in trouble.”
No wonder, if that statement was true, that Mr Fuld displayed such an air of pained bewilderment at his congressional committee hearing last week. His expression of regret at the collapse of his bank should be included in every MBA syllabus.