&gt; The US did the exact same thing with Lehmann - they found the bank that was more fucked than the rest, let them fail in a controlled manner, and it sent a signal to the market that &quot;this is serious, equity will be wiped out, but it&#x27;s not financial Armageddon&quot;.<p>Umm, I guess this could be a matter of opinion but this seems completely wrong to me.<p>I&#x27;d argue the Lehman failure was anything but controlled, and so would pretty much anyone in the finance industry.<p>I&#x27;d also argue that the government didn&#x27;t let them fail to be an example, that was done with Bear Sterns.  The government try extremely hard to save Lehman and ultimately it was Lehman&#x27;s ownership,who refused to have their equity wiped out, who sunk the company.