Awaiting the Economic Fates

For those who follow such things, today is a sweet combo meal day. Huzzah!

So back to the bad news. I've been trying to make sense of the simultaneous implosion of America's major banking houses- I still have not succeeded in doing this. To a degree which seems unnatural in a western Democracy, we mortals await the verdict of our financial gods, whose ways are inscrutable in the extreme.

In case the collapses Monday were not excitement enough, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan continue to struggle to save the monstrous AIG, whose collapse would by most accounts make the hits to Lehman Brothers look like small beer. If the NYT is to be believed, it isn't going well. Although even the Times has to admit the story might well be a leak to facilitate some hidden agenda.

The world's markets hang in the balance.

Undecided voters of America: does this economic outlook strike you as "fundamentally sound?" Can you, the nation, or the international system of credit that allows you to have a mortgage survive eight more years of this?

I really wanted to move the public debate past lipstick, but this is all getting a little too serious.