Greed, arrogance, indiscretion and a large chunk of bad luck: this deadly concoction led to America's fourth-largest investment bank Lehman Brothers biting the dust and sending tremors across the financial world.
With even the giants of this world unsafe from the uncertainties and complexities of a global economy, the questions that are uppermost in everyone's mind are: who will be the next to go bankrupt and when will this fiscal tempest subside?
Frankly, no one knows for sure who will be the next to go belly up or when will the world economy return to normalcy. But then for Corporate America, bankruptcies or vagaries of uncertain economy are nothing new.
Over the years, the world has been witness to many an irresponsible management policy and greed that wreaked havoc on 'super' companies that folded up. In the process, billions of dollars -- both investors' money and employees' pension -- went down the drain.
So here is a list of the biggest bankruptcies to hit America in the last two decades. Read on. . .
Compiled by Rediff Business Desk
Image: The frontal view of the New York Stock Exchange. | Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
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