The US authorities’ gamble in letting Lehman Brothers fail was simple. The outcome was better, they thought, than another rescue that would reinforce the belief that the taxpayer would always come to the rescue of creditors in large financial companies – particularly the bondholders.

In recent weeks, Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve chairman, had discussed the matter with Jean Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, and Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, a European central bank confirmed on Monday.