19 september 2008

Economist: What next?

The financial crisis

Sep 18th 2008

From The Economist print edition

Global finance is being torn apart; it can be put back together again


Illustration by Oliver Burston
FINANCE houses set out to be monuments of stone and steel. In the widening gyre the greatest of them have splintered into matchwood. Ten short days saw the nationalisation, failure or rescue of what was once the world’s biggest insurer, with assets of $1 trillion, two of the world’s biggest investment banks, with combined assets of another $1.5 trillion, and two giants of America’s mortgage markets, with assets of $1.8 trillion. The government of the world’s leading capitalist nation has been sucked deep into the maelstrom of its most capitalist industry. And it looks overwhelmed.