Ned Lamont On Wall Street Crisis: "This Is Our Katrina"

"It's the human toll that is frightening," said State Rep. Livvy Floren, a friend of Mr. Fuld. "Dick Fuld has spent 39 years of his life doing this. It's more than just money. They're not going to be in the streets starving....I think the man worked 24/7. His family and Lehman are his life."

A deeper analysis was offered by local Democrat Ned Lamont, who in one fell swoop compared Greenwich's money woes to the Japan malaise, Asian tsunami and the New Orleans flood.

"It really is a financial tsunami, and it could go either way," said the multimillionaire telecommunications mogul who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006. "It took Japan 20 years to recover from their buying binge. How long does it take us to work through excessive leverage? That could take years not months. This is our Katrina."

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