[palmer]

Lehman going down triggered fear and uncertainty certainly. No matter what it would have happened eventually.

That's the key there. If we had kept Lehman running, the government would have had to nationalize the banking sector through the Fed instead of TARP. The TARP crap at least pushed the problem out into the open instead of on an opaque Fed balance sheet. Either way we were/are screwed.

[nyconse]

Yeah, I agree...it would have been far better for the feds to rescue Lehman rather than ever enacting TARP.