The path from Lehman to TARP was less one of a sovereign state rising to a crisis than of a dysfunctional power struggle within the social and political network that tied Washington, DC, to Wall Street and to the European financial system beyond. In September political and commercial considerations had prevented a deal to save Lehman. It took a month of panic, political confusion and unprecedented financial turmoil to reach the point in mid-October when the barons of Wall Street would listen when Paulson thumped the table and declared that everyone must take the Treasury’s money.
