Will Korea Development Bank take over Lehman?

It is not going to happen.

Protectionist sentiments are at an all time high.

Look at Congress' reluctance to the capital infusion from sovereign wealth funds, which did not even represent majority stakes.

Look at Congress' reaction to the Inbev-Anheuser Busch deal.

Remember the political storm that occurred due to a state-owned Chinese company attempting to takeover Unocal or the bid by Dubai Ports World to take over manage of American ports facilities.

This country is afraid of cross-border investments

Now imagine a foreign nation attempting to gain a majority stake in one of the premier American investment banks.

Not going to happen.

If anything, KDB will buy a significant stake in Lehman, but definitely not an outright takover.

It's hard to compare Budweiser to Lehman Brothers, especially since most of most people have no idea what Lehman Brothers is

Honestly the public might even support this, "Wall Street fat cats getting bailed out by someone who isn't the taxpayer". Hell it'd be easy to pitch

The Budweiser example is merely one example that demonstrates the strong and growing protectionist sentiments within the nation.

And whether the public supports it or not is irrelevant, as it is Congress that will aim to take action, being that it, unlike your typical American, is familiar with Lehman Brothers.

So why would congress care about Lehman Brothers?

Dubai ports - no shit they're going to care. "national security"
Cnooc buying Unocal - again, duh
Budweiser - an American institution. Plus, Congress didn't do shit

Why exactly would Congress care about Lehman Brothers? Everyone thinks they're in trouble and the market's pricing in Lehman ex-Lehman AM is worht less than zero. If they collapses the taxpayer suffers. Sell Lehman, remove stress from the markets, everyone's happy.

There's nothing to "protect" with Lehman other than toxic assets and a nice building in Times Sq.

wasn't this rumor started from some mistranslated bloomberg quote?