“ 'What has taken a number of us by surprise is the lack of adequate supervision and regulation,' Rana Kapoor was saying the other day. 'This was despite the fact that Enron had happened and you passed Sarbanes-Oxley. We don’t understand it. Maybe it’s because we sit in a more controlled economy but ….' He smiled sweetly as his voice trailed off, as if to take the sting off his comments. But they stung nonetheless." PLEASE! We had Bushies in charge. They don't give a shit.

"The financial services industry has claimed an ever-growing share of the nation’s income over the past generation, making the people who run the industry incredibly rich. Yet, at this point, it looks as if much of the industry has been destroying value, not creating it. And it’s not just a matter of money: the vast riches achieved by those who managed other people’s money have had a corrupting effect on our society as a whole." Finance in America quit being about helping companies make more money through appropriate use of credit practices and more about greed. Sad, but that's what happens when government doesn't keep a tight grip.

"But the story of how we got here is partly one of Mr. Bush’s own making, according to a review of his tenure that included interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials.

"From his earliest days in office, Mr. Bush paired his belief that Americans do best when they own their own home with his conviction that markets do best when let alone." Oh, unintended consequences, you scamp!

"The first public call for Richard Cizik’s resignation from NAE came from two dozen evangelical leaders in a March 2, 2007, letter to L. Roy Taylor, chairman of the board of NAE. James Dobson and others said that Cizik’s views on global warming were 'a threat to the unity and integrity' of NAE. These leaders suggested Cizik’s views were 'dividing and demoralizing the NAE' and added, 'If he cannot be trusted to articulate the views of American evangelicals on environmental issues, then we respectfully suggest that he be encouraged to resign his position with the NAE.' These leaders said the idea that global-warming was human-induced was not appropriate for evangelicals." Mark Traphagen invited me to read this, and I think it's important. GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT A REASON TO CAN AN EVANGELICAL LEADER. Idiot Christianists.

"The way that everything really is connected — I recently saw a school in southern China that will be in trouble because its donors are losing money through the Madoff fraud in New York — and that no one has 'any buffer, any resiliency' is something we've known in theory but are only now comprehending in its daily, cascading reality. It's worth looking at the summary for similarly uplifting thoughts." I think we can have buffers if we're better about saving and aren't trying to wring every last dime out of consumption, but what do I know?