[huntbytnkbel]

The good old days are probably over.

Its going to go beyond the recent bailouts by the Federal Government, and if they hadn't occurred, Europe and the rest of the world would likely have been dragged under.

Commentators are not saying that there will no such thing as "retirement" from now on.

What will happen to those in charge of the machinery that caused this?

Across the pond, calls are being made for an inquiry, and for heads to roll:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...lcomments=true
A tribunal must tell us what to fix. And whom to punish

The state shirked its role while City stupidity and greed slid into thieving. When the crisis subsides, an inquiry is needed


An extract from the article

"Who are they? Where are they now? They said it could not happen again. They said they were masters of the universe. They had conquered history itself and had that wily monster quivering at their feet. There would be no more crashes, no more recessions, no more booms and busts, just moonbeams and rainbows and jam for tea.

If the mistakes that have collapsed the world's financial markets had been made by statesmen and had led to war, there would be corpses swinging from lampposts. If they had been made by generals, they would be falling on their swords. If they had been made by judges or surgeons or scholars, some framework of professional retribution would be rolling into action. But those responsible for our finances can apparently vanish into the forest like Cheshire cats, leaving only gold-plated grins. Not for them a Hague tribunal or a Hutton inquiry. They are not just good at shedding risk - they shed blame."

One contributor writes:

"Joe Taxpayer is stymied twice - once on his mortage/pension/savings (OK that's three times) and on having to fork out, via the Treasury, for the Laurel and Hardys who got the global economy into this fine mess."

Another contributor:

"Then there's; ' Education ! Idiotication ! Indoctrination !' Need I say more ? And not to forget all the clever advisers on the telly, in the magazines, in the newspapers, outdoing each other to tell you to get on the property ladder. Probably the same fickle shiteheads saying today 'You shouldn't have bought -in small print and sotto voce-those things we were telling you to buy'."

Another contributor:

"The alternative is to recover Medieval laws that allowed execution of those bankers who defaulted on their clients. This was often accompanied by their families being sold into slavery. A surefire recipe for rectitude I would think."