US Assets will be approved and sold to foreigners.
Infrastructure can be sold using PPP (private public partnerships) as well as non and goverment assets.
The ocean of reserve dollars (SWF) globally will be repudiated back to the US. When things go from bad to worse for the US economy the public will accept the asset sales in order to create jobs, build new infrastructure, create a new economy for America,,,you get the picture.

"In fact, the U.S. must annually roll over (re-finance) about US$1 trillion in bonds and notes to keep the government open for business. The cost of financing that borrowing is about to go way up. It will be a real, immediate impact on the American economy. The consequences of years of deficit spending by the government are about to hit home in the United States."

And all 3 presidential candidates (McCain, Clinton & Obama) have absolutely no concept of fiscal restraint and working within a budget. This should be interesting to watch them deal with reality.

Bear went first because of its relatively narrow business base the death of commercial credit markets and higher than average leverage. You mentioned a first tier few banks and I don’t disagree. I now expect higher casualties rates in second and third tier institutions. Other first tier institutions probably have more resilient balance sheets than Bear and I my guess is that they will hold on for the time being, well at least until after the US elections.

The wild ride of the slow motion car crash continues.