THE fifth anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy has occasioned one legacy-spinning defense after another. We’ve heard from Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve; Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary at the time; and Timothy F. Geithner, then the New York Fed president and later Mr. Paulson’s successor at Treasury, about their historic decisions to use trillions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to bail out the banking system.

But will we ever know what really happened behind all those closed doors? The seemingly appalling treatment afforded Richard M. Bowen III, a former Citigroup executive who blew the whistle on years of malfeasance there, shows that we may not. Thanks to political pressure and the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, the events leading up to the financial crisis remain obscured and may never be fully revealed.

Read on.

Widow faces foreclosure on reverse mortgage she says she didn’t understand

Barbara Freeman will never forget what it was like the day a slick banker sat down at the kitchen table in the only house she’s ever owned.

Mike Sullivan, a man whose business card identified him as a Wells Fargo reverse mortgage consultant who worked out of Greensboro, and a partner explained the workings of a deal that he said could provide much needed cash to Freeman and her husband, Roy.

“I didn’t understand really anything about it,” she said. “But they made it sound good, and they told us I could stay in the house even if something happened to Roy.”

The bankers thought they might be interested in what they were selling — a high-interest reverse mortgage that would provide them with nearly $25,000.

Despite misgivings, the Freemans took the deal. But instead of a worry-free retirement…