This year has seen its fair share of turkeys in the financial sector, and many of them have since disappeared from exchange traded funds (ETFs). But who are the worst of the worst?

Allan Sloane on MarketPlace Public Radio with Scott Jagow says that the top of his list goes out to the government, for letting Lehman Brothers fail. He feels that letting Lehman fail was a mistake because it had a domino effect throughout the economy and reverberated in ways nobody anticipated.

“It messed up the markets, it led to a money market fund breaking the buck. It started runs of hedge funds moving their money. And it set off this horrible mess that is still continuing. That’s why I have given it not only the turkey of the year award, but very likely the turkey of the decade, since there are only two years left of the decade,” Sloan says.

Next on his list is the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, which went back and fourth on the troubled assets relief program (TARP) and basically shook the faith of American citizens. Sloan feels that announcing the program, then retreating from it was the worst thing to do. Now, when Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke speak, nobody listens.

Despite their skittering, the decision was ultimately made in the best interest of the American citizen, and the economic system. The bottom line was they made the right decision, but they jumped the gun on announcing a plan that wasn’t particularly well-thought out.

And not thinking before you speak, whoever you are, makes you a turkey.

Tags: Federal Reserve, Financial, Sector ETFs