Sweden and Finland Fear Return of "Lehman Moment"

August 5,2022 (EIRNS) Due to the cutoff of Russian gas, Sweden wants to offer 10 billion euros to energy companies and Finland 23 billion euros. [I think this is reversed between the two–pbg] “This (gas crisis) has had the ingredients for a kind of a Lehman Brothers of energy industry,” Finnish Economic Affairs Minister Mika Lintila said on Sunday. In 2008, Lehman Brothers had a debt of $600 billion. It was the fourth largest investment bank. The response of the US government was to throw oil on the fire (quantitative easing, as much as it takes). “The government’s programme is a last-resort financing option for companies that would otherwise be threatened with insolvency,” fresh from her latest drug test and disco visit, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin told a news conference. The Finnish state-controlled energy company Fortum required swift action (?) to prevent default. The collateral requirement on Nasdaq Nordic clearing recently hit 180 billion Swedish crowns (about $16 billion), up from around 25 billion in normal times due to the surge in power prices, which have risen some 1,100%, Sweden’s debt office said on Saturday. Euractiv