Inappropriate comparison.

The Fed has rescued several institutions over a weekend or a day (Bear, Fannie/Freddie, AIG) and the FDIC has taken over several banks swiftly (Indymac, WaMu, Wachovia). I don't recall whether they did anything special about Merrill, since BofA's CEO likes to overpay for big purchases anyway. I don't know what Paulson/Bernanke were thinking when they let Lehman fail.

These swift interventions by the bureaucracy parallel the European ones. Paulson's "all your shitpile are belong to me" is in a separate league altogether and Europe hasn't yet tried anything of the sort so we don't know how that would fare.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith