If only 42 was really the answer to life, the universe and everything. That's how many months Lehman Brothers languished in Chapter 11 protection. The Wall Street firm's failure in September 2008 triggered a global financial meltdown. Sadly, the emergence of its ghost from bankruptcy three-and-a-half years later scarcely offers even symbolic hope that the crisis is truly over. Lehman's was neither a typical bankruptcy of the kind seen, say, at American Airlines nor a quickie reboot like the ones the government funded at Chrysler and General Motors. Instead, the firm offloaded its major businesses just days after going under — the asset management unit to its partners, the US brokerage to Barclays, and the European and Asian operations to Nomura. Since then, Lehman has been a humongous exercise in asset liquidation for debt holders to fight over. Creditors submitted more than $300 billion in claims and will, probably, recover around $65 billion over time.