The FDIC found a buyer for the bank at zero without too much difficulty, so in hindsight the taxpayer's money wasn't actually spent here.<p>Would it have been a better warning to haircut the depositors a token amount? Say "the FDIC has evaluated the business and agreed to assume everything up to $1m, and 99% of deposits above $1m/customer". That would mean no one actually suffers cashflow problems, but it would send the message that the next time, the depositors might not be so lucky, and they need to do a better job of assessing their banks' solvency.