reword this ... In chapter 5 of the book, it is stated that "If a deal looked bad or went wrong, they just left it off the balance sheet, which was of course effective, if blatantly dishonest." This just shows that the Lehman brothers were dishonest with their finances to make the company seem financially stable. Doing this allowed them to mislead authorities and investors on the amount of leverage and helped prevent risk exposure. Being dishonest has pros and cons, but as long as they benefit from it, it's okay, right? No, not really.