Lehman’s Demise Triggered Cash Crunch Around Globe - WSJ.com
A step-by-step account of how the decision to let Lehman fall lead to the Global panic in the financial markets. Paul Krugman summarizes: "Lehman’s fall led to (1) a run on money market funds, causing commercial paper rates to soar (2) soaring rates on credit default swaps, [...]

Night is gone, a dawn
comes up in birds and sounds of the city.
There will be light
to live by, things
to see: my eyes will lift
to where the sun in vermilion sits,
and I will love thee and have pity. (Michael Hartnett)
I’m sitting on the small fenced stone wall that surrounds the central bank on Dame Street, [...]

Trouble in Banktopia: The financial system is blowing up
Mike Whitney on the Bailout: "How did Treasury Secretary Paulson figure out that recapitalizing the banking system would cost $700 billion? Or did he just estimate the amount of money that could be loaded on the back of the Treasury's flatbed truck when it sputters off to [...]

The Big Picture | Tally of Federal Rescues
"In the Sunday NYT print edition, there is an excellent visual depiction of costs all the Federal bailouts relative to ordinary fiscal expenditures (Iraq & Afghanistan Wars, Medicaid, stimulus package, social security, etc.)
It is extraordinary to see how our on the fly, poorly thought out cures are [...]

I was pulling my hair out when a friend rang me pulling her hair out.  A lot of hair being grabbed.  Let’s start with my hair.  Noel Whelan has given us the benefit of his deep and comprehensive research into the crisis in Exchequer financing:  he has read the reply to a Parliamentary Question.  And what he read shocked him:  [...]

Once in a Century Rip-Off
Dr. Michael Hudson talking to Real News says that the bail out shouldn't happen, and likened the attempt to bring the bail out package through, using emergency powers, to the introduction of free markets by Pinochet in Chile.

The Perilous Price of Oil - The New York Review of Books
George Soros on the speculation that lead to an 'oil bubble' the overinflated price of oil on the stock market: "According to my theory, prices in financial markets do not necessarily tend toward equilibrium. They do not just passively reflect the fundamental conditions of [...]

The view from the world’s second-tallest building, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, is a bit of an anti-climax - once you get near the top there’s not much to see that can compare with the skyscraper itself. You can’t help being impressed, though, at the ambition behind the Towers. In case visitors over-look what [...]

A sneaking suspicion - Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog
Krugman has found that the term 'price discovery', which was used by Paulson yesterday to explain to the Senate committee why it was necessary to write Wall Street a blank cheque, was first coined yesterday. He adds: "It has seemed very [...]

How Sweden Solved Its Bank Crisis - NYTimes.com
The Swedish government, during their credit crisis squeezed the shareholders of the banks and demanded losses were written down before supporting them.
"Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the opposition center-left, Mr. Bildt’s conservative government announced that the Swedish state would guarantee all bank deposits and creditors of the nation’s 114 banks. [...]