After the Music Stoped by Alan Blinder

lol...the "free market": By the time the panic subsided, the wreckage was everywhere. Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sacks, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and others had all been rescued, in one way or another, by the Federal government. A government led, by the way, by a deeply conservative Republican president, a secretary of the Treasury who hailed from Goldman Sacks and characterized himself as "a firm believer in free markets," and a Federal Reserve chairman who called himself a libertarian." 165-166 http://www.amazon.com/After-Music-Stopped-Financial-Response/dp/1594205302

"One word come to mind after looking over this list [of bailouts]: Wow! The face of the American financial system was changed beyond recognition. The Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the FDIC took actions the few people could have imagined before 2008. The U.S. taxpayer was potentially on the hook for unbelievable sums. But the system, massively assisted by the U.S. government, held together. That's the unsung part of the story." 166