It's interesting to see people referring in the comments beneath this post to a "market correction."

Whatever else is happening on Wall Street -- and for what it's worth, we're well past a correction and into a bear market -- two much bigger stories are unfolding.

One is the credit crunch, discussed in the linked post and many previous ones, which is rippling through the broader economy.

The other is the remaking of our financial system. "End of an era" is not too dramatic a phrase. It's not just a matter of big names disappearing -- although that's shocking if you follow this stuff -- it's the extinction (or near extinction) of independent broker dealers. It's the radical change in the relationship between government and the private sector, and the coming era of regulatory rethink that will influence every part of the financial-services industry.

I do believe in the creative destruction referenced in the previous post. The old system was corrupt and opaque and broken. I think we'll get a new one that works better, and that after a while we'll break that one, too.

But if everything magically gets better this afternoon (it won't), the world has changed already in ways that go beyond big losses in the stock market.

Comments

[anon]

It won't ? Yes it did Bozo !

[anon]

It won't ? Yes it did Bozo !