Academic

It is, apparently, international (which I bet the chair likes - he says that international work takes up at least 50% of his time anyway):

?For several days, we have worked closely with regulators around the world including the FSA in the United Kingdom, the BaFin in Germany, and the FSA in Japan, as well as our counterparts in other markets around the world, to coordinate our actions in the interest of orderly markets,? said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. ?In doing so we have also worked closely with the Treasury and the Federal Reserve and market participants. We are committed to using our regulatory and supervisory authorities to reduce the potential for dislocations from Lehman?s unwinding, and to maintain the smooth functioning of the financial markets.?

And it is about broker-dealer customer protection, through insurance:

The accounts of Lehman?s U.S. retail securities customers are with the broker-dealer. In cases such as this, Lehman Brothers? customers will benefit from their extensive protections under SEC rules, including segregation of customer securities and cash as well as insurance by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. These safeguards are designed to ensure that a broker-dealer?s customers will be protected. 

In the weeks ahead, SEC staff who have been on-site at the U.S. broker-dealer will remain in place to oversee the orderly transfer of customer assets to one or more SIPC-insured brokerage firms. The holding company bankruptcy filing does not affect in any way the SIPC protection applicable to the firm?s customers.

All very important, I'm sure.  But the SEC oversees the capital adequacy of banks like Lehman.  It doesn't have the resources to help, obviously, but it is always worth remembering that, like with Bear Stearns, when the emergency came, Wall Street looked to the Fed and Treasury.  The SEC must be feeling a little ignored, though, since Paulson entered the fray, you might be able to say the same thing about the Fed.  Unless it is the President's Working Group that is the institutional vehicle for much of the government action......