I think maybee…
From an outside perspective this “crisis” reads better than a good book. We are told that the US financial system (its banks) are on the brink of collapse as a direct result of the financial shinanegans that were all part of the so-called sub-prime debacle. The argument is that the collapse of a few US banks will bring the world as we know it to a grinding halt, everyone will be out of a job, soup kitchens will be the order of the day and George Bush will look more stupid than he does already.
Here in Oz our elected leaders abandoned their major climate report to make stern faced appearances before the assembled media to reiterate Oz is ok but the US needs to get is house in order or the free world will collapse. All very serious stuff! However the news coming out of the US is not all that gloomy although there is plenty to think about. For starters, people power actually worked when the congress voted against the bill to shift the debt from private banks to the federal reserve. Then there seems to be plenty of opinion that any government intervention is undesirable because it either represents some form of socialism (the epitome of evil in the US) or it is glorified corporate welfare benefiting only the mates of George W.
What seems to be agreed is that no one knows how any of this will pan out. Non intervention will force the market to self correct which might be very scary or it might not. In the long term, this might be the shot in the arm the US needed, it certainly brings the focus back to internal US political concerns which makes a refreshing change from the diet of war and terrorism that the rest of the world has been force fed since 9/11. Above all else, the matter seems to have woken up the american people to what has been going on under their noses and this has to be a good thing.
I for one hope that this event marks the time when US starts leading again, this time by example.