Meanwhile...

True, there's an election going on here in Canada, but really, that happens every year or two so it's no big deal. Less frequent (in the developed world, at any rate) is the sort of financial industry carnage this weekend brings in the U.S. What a mess!

Perhaps relevant, from a Paul Krugman column from last December:

"Mr. Greenspan wasn’t the only top official who put ideology above public protection. Consider the press conference held on June 3, 2003 — just about the time subprime lending was starting to go wild — to announce a new initiative aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on banks. Representatives of four of the five government agencies responsible for financial supervision used tree shears to attack a stack of paper representing bank regulations. The fifth representative, James Gilleran of the Office of Thrift Supervision, wielded a chainsaw."