more on the current financial crisis

[tagryn]

Came across this Megan McArdle article at atlantic.com describing in understandable terms why exactly this bailout is seen as a do-it-NOW-or-else measure, and how close the financial markets came to melting down last week. Read the comments, though, for a leavening measure.

Also, the thing that started alarm bells ringing in my head was this article in the WSJ last week, specifically the part where it said

And so, in a single week, the era of the independent investment bank has ended. Wall Street as we've known it for decades has ceased to exist. Six months ago there were five major investment banks. Two -- Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns -- have failed, Merrill Lynch is selling itself to Bank of America, and now the last two are becoming commercial banks

It left me with the impression that there's massive seismic changes going on in the economy, and the stock market as we know is...well, isn't as we've traditionally known it, the fundamentals have changed in ways I certainly don't understand yet.

Comments

[foomf.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's been what "we've known it for decades" for ...decades.
The curtain got pulled back and the little man is naked for us all to see.


And Gingrich disliking this turn of events? He is largely responsible for much of it, with his personal push behind the de-regulation of the roles of investment and commercial banks.