It's a big deal to everyone. It's a big deal to the shareholders of Lehman, Bear, and the Mac's who bought shares because of the security of a bank and a GSE and some positive long term returns only to find out their shares are now worth zero. It's a big deal to the counterparties on all the bonds and swaps.
In all honesty I think the economy is already at a terrible point. A big chunk of the job losses is from middle management who are in the higher income bracket. Imagine all the lost tax revenues simply due to the loss of jobs on WS... This will, like GG already said prevent it from spiraling into a global recession.