[VOA]

If this country goes down for the count, it will be largely due
to government responding to public opinion.

You'll get no argument here.
I can see possible (and even plausible) arguments to save AIG
due to it's insinuation throughout the world economy.

But the mixed messages of saving Bear Stearns, then letting
Lehman fall...just too bloody confusing to figure out for even
some sophisticated investor to say "hey, I'll put money into
this distressed stock on speculative purposes".

And after AIG, the government said the message to distressed
companies to merge...to "get big fast" in order to become possibly
"too big to fail" and get a government bailout.

Instead, now the sane are completely out of the game, and only
sellers are active!

[Cold Heat]

The street's opinion that somehow the Fed was out to lunch or somehow responsible for the Lehman failure is erroneous.

Although it's understandable that some would leap to that conclusion, from what I understand, they tried to prevent it, yet Lehman made it impossible by repeated refusals of legitimate offers that the Fed had negotiated, and in the end, they stepped back and let it go.

Then the opposite occurred with WaMu where WaMu and the Fed worked together and tried like hell to find a private solution yet none came forward as they simply waited for the inevitable.

I had a investment in WaMu.(unfortunately)