Lehman Creditors Face Complex Unwind

"Lehman's bankruptcy will have a ripple effect on competitors, and that has the potential to bring them down because they may not be able to honor their contracts with somebody else," says Sreedhar Bharath, assistant professor of finance at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

Like an increasing number of observers, Bharath does not rule out the possibility of this crisis causing a 1930s style crisis, or worse, given the effects of globalization.

"The effects in 1930, perhaps you could argue, were contained in the U.S., but now the potential for something like this is going to be many more times magnified," he says.