Bear Stearns "soft landing" at JP Morgan Chase with US Gov backing

US Gov bailout of Fannie & Freddie

An active US Gov hand in Merrill Lynch joining Bank of America (led by a Southerner no less!)

And now a mondo $85 billion US Gov loan to AIG for an 80% stake (via warrants)

Lehman Brothers got nada because they apparently hadn't done enough damage and now Barclay's is picking up a few select pieces.

Man, I sure am glad we have free markets here.  Oh wait…

Which leads me to the conclusion that yes, things are/were that bad.