Uppity Wisconsin

Update II: 'Fear' Index at All-time Intraday High; see http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=%5Evix

Paul Craig Roberts ought to be required reading for all policy makers during this apparently long period of multiple crises. Holding the Clinton and the George W. Bush administrations accountable for the financial crises currently (as in right this second) shaking the world, Paul Craig Roberts points to three extraordinary culprits:

- The repeal of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act [known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999] repealing the separation of commercial from investment banking, that was signed into law during the Democratic Clinton Administration in 1999

- The exclusion of derivatives and credit default swaps from regulation in 2000

- And most importantly:

Before the bailout crisis dominated the political and financial news, a high-circulation political newsletter, CounterPunch, continued its breaking analyses and exclusives on its free website, sounding alarms to which we all should have listened.

Prominent among CounterPunch writers is Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and former contributing editor of National Review.

Roberts has been warning for years that America is hollowing out its labor force, and is in clear and present danger of a market crash with clearly dangerous ramifications vectoring like a killer virus.

Writes Roberts: