I actually looked at Doug's earlier post last evening and was tempted to ask "Aren't you going to say 'I told you so!'?" Not much pleasure in being right in this case, I expect.

I was hesitant to predict the magnitude of what we might see, but nothing that has unfolded surprises me. And for over a year I kept hearing "Seattle is different" from folks who somehow imagined the local housing market immunized us. Dreamers. I agree, Doug, anybody should have been able to see this coming.

And it is going to be very interesting to see whether the Euro can be held together. I feel like that could almost make the first wave of this tsunami seem small.

So governments around the world are now nationalizing, printing money to buy assets that are pretty impossible to assign value to. The only people who have any say on what these insane derivatives might be worth are the madmen who dreamed them up.

I'm the FDR bio I have been reading I have now reached his inauguration in March 1933. FDR breaks with protocol on inauguration day and makes a visit to the retired, ailing Oliver Wendell Holmes. Leaving, FDR asks Holmes if had any advice and Holmes said "Mr. President you are in a war. Form your battalions and fight." When Roosevelt came out on the street, hundreds of citizens cheered and clapped. "Gosh it sounds good to hear that again" whispered the head of the Secret Service detail who had served 4 years under Hoover.

It's an inspiring biography, mostly thanks to a lot of small, personal details. And it is more fun to read it than to watch the 2nd debate.

I listen to the news coverage of "people on the street" opinions of what Obama should do, and what he's said he might do, and none of it sounds like the New Deal to me. Things like completely middle-of-the-road health care plans. So, assuming Obama wins, it will be interesting to see if any bolder president emerges or will he simply become a Depression-era punching bag and the Right's next hoped-for Jimmy Carter.

With respect to fraudulent securities and toxic assets, I think this day has been coming since like 1980. The rich got richer. I'm not sure I have much hope that a new regulatory landscape will take form to save us from "next time". FDR did what he could. And we blew it.