America just got its lunch eaten by finance. The question now is what to do as the program unfolds.

The myth of the free market as distinct from the government has just crashed and imploded. So has the myth of Horatio Alger that one can ward off fear by just putting your head down and keeping government out of your hair. Government has not, even now, erected adequate boundaries vis a vis taxpayer money for the financial sector and the excesses of the financial sector have exploded Horatio Alger.

The crisis on Wall Street appears to be very severe. The Federal Reserve's emergency actions, background discussions with foreign central banks about outright purchase of mortgages, and the premiums on interbank interest rates over Treasury Bills (The so called Ted Spread) suggest that fear of credit collapse is significant. As a result "the rules of the game" are in play.