Well, that makes two. First it was Bear Stearns, now Lehman:

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., once the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, will file for bankruptcy after potential buyers abandoned talks and the U.S. government declined to fund a takeover of the crippled firm.

With Merrill out of the game the main question is, who's next? There has to be some counter-party fallout from Lehman's collapse. Let us hope it doesn't go viral and create systemic havoc. Trust me, nothing like that is in anyone's interest, no matter how badly the 'Masters of the Universe' on Wall Street deserve their comeuppance.

Related post: Would Lehman’s Default Be a Systemic CDS Event? This is the Trillion dollar question.