A financial crisis unmatched since the Great Depression, say analysts

Once again the Robber Barons have driven us over a cliff.

A century after John Pierpont Morgan rescued the New York stock market from a 50% sell off in share prices, his blue-blooded Wall Street bank was yesterday once again at the heart of attempts to contain the deepening global financial crisis.

In an echo of the "bankers' panic" of 1907, JP Morgan responded to what is being billed as a meltdown of historic proportions by agreeing to buy its stricken rival, Bear Stearns.

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Fed and the man blamed by many for setting off the boom-bust in the US housing market, agrees with the man who broke the Bank of England. Writing in the Financial Times yesterday, Greenspan said: "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war."

I for one am so sick of Alan Greenspan. he is one of those that favors self regulation. Where exactly has that gotten us? I will tell you. It has made the financial condition of the United States dangerously similar to the country of Argentina right before their collapse.

Why is it that we are forced to bail out Wall St. but have yet to even help the poor of New Orleans? Why is it that the heads of these financial firms who are responsible for policies that have nearly destroyed our economy walked away with millions when they should be facing jail time? Its all part of the larger narrative about money in politics and the dangerous game we are playing with our nations future. We are guaranteeing that the children of today will have a lower quality of living than the past generation. Surely we can do better. It is time to demand an end to money in politics and adopt a system of public financing of campaigns before we have lost this great nation once and for all.