Just watching CNN’s coverage of the U.S. Senate’s vote on the revamped bailout proposal. One of the things that frustrates me the most about this mess is that it was foreseeable. But what’s even more frustrating is that lawmakers could be powerless to get us out of it.
Last spring, I read an article in the Economist warning that the American financial markets may be overstretched. Big financial institutions were betting heavily on complex securities — like mortgage-backed securities — in an increasingly global market and lots of smart people, including those who are about to be bailed out, recognized the risks involved:
Click to continue reading “Is the financial crisis too complex to solve?”
