One of the most tumultuous weekends in Wall Street's history
began Friday, when federal officials decided to deliver a
sobering message to the captains of finance: There would be no
government bailout of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.  Complete
Coverage  Read more about Wall Street in Crisis.  Officials
wanted to prepare the market for the possibility that Lehman
could simply fail. The best way to do that in an orderly way
would be to get everyone together in a room.  Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his top
New York lieutenant, Timothy Geithner, summoned some 30 Wall
Street executives for a 6 p.m. Friday meeting at the Fed's
offices in Lower Manhattan.  "There is no political will for a
federal bailout," Mr. Geithner told the assembled executives,
according to a person familiar with the matter. "Come back in
the morning and be prepared to do something."  Over the next 48
hours, these marching orders developed into a nerve-wracking
test of the ability of the U.S. fina