Risk drifts from Wall Street to governments, to you and me

Anyone who lost money in the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc should probably be reaching for their lawyers about now.

Our money - yours and mine - is now keeping the global financial system afloat. In a capitulation that beggars belief, governments all around the world have pledged our money - yours and mine - to fund a "No Bank Left Behind" program. And no matter what the politicians say, that means our money - yours and mine - is now at risk in the casino.

So the decision to let Lehman go to the wall last month looks increasingly like (a) an experiment in brinkmanship gone wrong (b) a worthless sacrifice to the angry gods of moral hazard (c) the biggest mistake that the authorities have made during the current crisis (d) all of the above.