A lot has been written and said in the past few weeks about CDS. Almost all of it has been bad press for the poor boys who write and trade this stuff for a living. Heads of State, leading academicians and economists, the MSM and even some of the financial blogs have all been pounding the table on this issue. The message has been pretty clear. “Something has to get done, or we are really really going to blow up next time.”

Naked Capitalism has a really good post by Frank Portnoy, a professor at the University of San Diego, that discusses another aspect of the Lehman bankruptcy examiner’s report.

He points out that noboby appears able to figure out what Lehman is worth:

Let's get something straight right off the bat. We all know there is a certain level of fraud sleight of hand in the financial industry. I have called many banks insolvent in the past. Some have pooh-poohed these proclamations, while others have looked in wonder, saying "How the hell did he know that?"

Renae Merle at the Washington Post throws cold water on the idea that the "nascent" economic recovery (is anyone still calling it that?) will continue much longer in this story about a subject that seems to slip further and further from the top of everyone's list of concerns - the growing backlog of foreclosures or soon-to-be foreclosures.

Ouch.

Anton Valukas is Chairman of the Jenner & Block law firm. A former United States Attorney specializing in civil and white collar criminal litigation, he was selected as the Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ.PK) bankruptcy trustee. He just released his 2,200 page report (he is, after all, a lawyer, and gets paid by the page) on how Lehman dug itself into the hole it could not climb out of.