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Scores On This Historic Day: The Crash of 2008 Begins

"Oh no, now I'm going to have to get a real job --
and there won't be any real jobs!"

September 15, 2008: The stock market crashes following a triple whammy: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch is acquired by Bank of America, and AIG asks for short-term financing from the Federal Reserve.

AIG (American International Group) was a major finance and insurance company. Merrill Lynch was the 3rd-largest investment bank in America, behind Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Lehman Brothers was 4th, and owned the brokerage firms E.F. Hutton (Remember the commercials from the 1980s? "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."), Smith Barney (Remember the even earlier commercials with John Houseman? "Smith Barney. They make money the old-fashioned way: They earn it.") and Shearson Hammill.

Lehman also owned American Express, the only one of these Lehman-owned companies to end up surviving the recession that was already underway by mid-2007. AIG also survived, and Bank of America managed to keep the Merrill name and division alive.

Major League Baseball games played on this "Black Monday":

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at the soon-to-close old Yankee Stadium.

* The New York Mets lost to the Washington Nationals, 7-2 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 13-5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. (Tropicana is owned by Pepsi, and survived the recession.)

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. (PNC Bank survived the recession.)

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. (Progressive Insurance survived the receession.)

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-0 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 6-1 at Minute Maid Park in Houston. (Minute Maid is owned by Coca-Cola, which survived the recession. The ballpark opened in 2000 as Enron Field, but Enron not only didn't survive the previous recession, it helped cause that recession.)

* The Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-8 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. (That stadium went through a few names, but did not then have a corporate name.)

* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 11-5 at Coors Field in Denver. (Coors survived the recession.)

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-1 at Chase Field in Phoenix. (JP Morgan Chase was hit hard by the crash, but survived the recession.)

Since this was a Monday in September, there was also a Monday Night Football game that night. The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 41-37 at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas.

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