A lot of the trolls on CNN's comment section were gloating yesterday, but we are having the last laugh, when you think about it the Lehman Brothers or Bear Sterns of the crypto world folded yesterday...and nothing happened. In fact BTC and other alts are rallying because of it. If Mt Gox were a major US bank, we'd be having fed policy makers locked behind doors for days on end figuring out how to bail them out and arguing if we don't do anything, bitcoin could suffer a "Catastrophic" collapse.
More accurately, BitInstant was more like the "Bear Stearns" of the Bitcoin market. When it folded, not just Keynesians but Austrian economists predicted the end of Bitcoin. Instead, Bitcoin rose 800%.
MtGox is like the JP Morgan Chase of Bitcoin. Anything analogous is completely unprecedented in fiat banking.
I am convinced '08 was nothing more than a big lie to steal trillions in wealth from middle-class Americans with fears that if we don't bail out the big banks, our whole economic way of life is on the line.
It was.
From the book
Griftopia, IIRC, companies like GS held the economy to ransom. Firstly, not only did they sell glitter covered shit and call it gold (repackage high risk MBS as AAA+), they actively bet against those "AAA+'s" as they sold them to unknowing pension funds etc. Then, when shit hit the fan they threatened to wipe out AIG by demanding debt repayment, something that would have bankrupted multiple cities / towns in the US. So, the govt bent over and repayed AIG's debt thru TARP / bailout funds.
note: all from memory, read it a while back.