Not convinced. Most accounts I've read from economists indicate that financial crisis would have ensued with or without a nationalization of Lehman. Smith seems to oversimplify the issue, arguing that the credit freeze occurred because markets weren't prepared for the firm's collapse. But I don't see the strength of connection between Lehman's failure and the meltdown that followed. This was a lot bigger than just Lehman -- but Smiths seems incapable of seeing any level of systemic failure. His view isn't poorly argued, but it's quite narrow.

Interesting opinion on how to prevent future financial meltdowns from Roy Smith, a Stern Business School professor. The author argues that we need to find new ways to reduce systemic risk in global capital markets, without requiring government intervention. This perspective is not unreasonable but a bit shallow. While it makes a good case for the need to restrain the capital pool, I would have liked to see more concrete examples of how to best regulate banking activity.

I consider this article a serious contribution with quite convincing reasoning. Some of its assumptions might be questioned, and its bias is what one would have expected, but the line of thought is quite straightforward and should be taken into account.