On September 15, 2008, amid a run of Wall Street bailouts, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. How much debt did its last balance sheet show?

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Lehman's last quarterly report before the collapse listed $613 billion in debt. Bear Stearns was bailed out in March, and AIG was saved the very next day, leaving Lehman as the only giant allowed to fail. The fallout quickly reached ordinary workers: 8.7 million American jobs vanished before the labor market hit bottom.

Lehman Brothers began in 1850 as a dry goods store in Montgomery, Alabama, opened by three brothers who had emigrated from Germany. It became a cotton broker, then a New York bank, and lasted 158 years.

Lehman Brothers owed $613 billion when it collapsed in 2008. The recession around it cost 8.7 million American jobs.

Source: Lehman Brothers Holdings, Form 10-Q Q2 FY2008 (SEC) · checked Jul 2008