IN 2008, as the global financial system was melting down, America's largest banks continued paying dividends. Those shareholder payouts were made both by institutions that were holding up amid the storm, like Bank of America, and by companies that were teetering on the brink. Both Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch continued handing out piles of cash to prove that they were solvent. They were not. And those payouts left them weaker, exacerbating shortfalls that would ultimately cause their demise.