On Sept. 1, Barry Popik received a check for $35.98. That legal settlement is all that’s left of the $25,000 he invested in Lehman Brothers preferred stock in February 2008. But money is not all that Mr. Popik, and countless other investors like him, lost. Their faith in the fairness of financial markets is also broken.
Mr. Popik, who lives in Orange County, N.Y., about 60 miles north of New York City, is a respected lexicographer who compiles an online dictionary that documents the origins of such terms as “hot dog” and “the Big Apple.”
Lehman issued $1.65 billion of the preferred shares on Feb. 12, 2008, at $25 apiece, with an annual dividend rate of 7.95%, payable in quarterly installments. Mr. Popik had told his broker that above all he wanted to keep his money safe….
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This article was originally published on The Wall Street Journal.
Further reading
Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor
Jason Zweig, The Devil’s Financial Dictionary
Jason Zweig, Your Money and Your Brain
Jason Zweig, The Little Book of Safe Money
Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer, A Crisis of Beliefs: Investor Psychology and Financial Fragility
Dale T. Miller, Disrespect and the Experience of Injustice