CitiGroup less important than GM?

Robert Reich argues here that there is nothing special about companies in the financial economy that makes it more important to bail them out than companies (like GM) in the real economy. He says investors in banks are finding the market values of their investments declining—even to zero—but that the companies are still able to function as financial intermediaries. I doubt he's right about this, but it's a view that should be developed and considered and a view that was apparently accepted by Paulson, Bernanke, and Geithner at the time they decided not to rescue Lehman. I agree with Reich's point that the financial industry thinks it's more important and more different than it really is, and it has very powerful institutional protectors at the Fed and Treasury. Somebody needs to push back.