Further proof we're living in historically monumental times: Everyone breathes a sign of relief when Kansas reaches a deal so it can meet its payroll and California's Legislature compromises to close a $41 billion budget gap. (The latter, for a brief time this week, couldn't find buyers for its bonds, which is the first time I've heard of a U.S. government entity unable to accomplish that.) These are things that shouldn't have to be averted because they shouldn't even enter the realm of end-game possibilities. These were two of them.
Oh, and add Antigua to Iceland and Hungary as the countries taken down by the global financial crisis. While Stanford Financial Group's justifiably S.E.C.-induced implosion isn't tied to the central causes of it all -- foreclosures and mortgage-backed securities whose only identifiable value is "far from what it used to be" -- it still fits into one of the broader themes that has emerged in the past 18 months.: A lack of interest in proper government regulation that could ensure the short-term gains financial institutions were reaping and the debt and risks they were shouldering wouldn't blow up in everyone's faces in the long term.
That brief list of three countries obviously doesn't include the ones who are in full-blown crises: the U.S., Britain, Ireland, Pakistan, France, Argentina, Spain, etc, etc. What is most troubling to me is how hard it is to imagine the recession's end game. It certainly won't come from people like Rick Santelli, the CNBC "journalist" who yesterday launched a populist rant against the Obama administration's plan to stem foreclosures. (Link here to sound rebuttals articulating how idiotic Mr. Santelli is.) How NBC/Universal can justify employing him is beyond me.
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