How does Lehman's collapse affect a borrower?  If anything, a collapse like that can possibly write off a loan (unlikely of course, your loan is an asset, ripe for sale by administrators).  So, if we're talking about a loan, what did you do with that money?  Spent it of course.  If you spent it on a tangible asset, then sell that asset.

However, the rest of your post seems to indicate that you didn't spend it on an long term asset; you gave it to a stock broker to buy stock for you.  Presumably you were hoping to make a big load of cash on some high risk stocks/bonds/funds/whatever?

In other words, you have invested in a risky enterprise using money you couldn't afford to lose and now that you have lost, you want other people to bail you out.  You should get a job in a bank.

I'm sorry, but yours is not a hard luck story.  That is a tale of financial foolishness.  You are a gambler who has borrowed from a loan shark to bet on a "sure thing", who's horse fell at the first hurdle.

Tell me, if your gamble had turned out well, would you have come and shared all your profit with us?  Of course not.  Why then should we share your loss?

We all live in the same world, and all suffered the same crash of Lehman's; the same financial crisis happened to everyone.  Why should those who didn't chose to take such risky financial actions (and have ended up in a position better than your own) now bail you out?

I'd be willing to help someone I knew personally who has had bad luck - lost their house because a tree fell on it; lost their car because a drunk hit it; lost their job because the CEO took a load of money out of the business and gave it to a stockbroker.  I wouldn't help the CEO or the drunk though.