Another reason not to look for leaders to save us...

From the Automatic Earth, an assessment of the Obama presidency ...

Ilargi: It’s just not going to stop anytime soon, is it? The markets will keep plunging and the unmitigated disaster that the Obama administration has turned out to be will continue to get worse day after grueling day.

"The U.S. government stands firmly behind the banking system...." Oh yeah? Well, that's not where the US government belongs. The US government should stand firmly behind its citizens. Standing behind the banking system? You better wear a helmet, because it's busy falling apart. These people live in a parallel universe, and that is a very bad idea when things are in need of repair. The government in Washington, like those in Paris, London and all the other capitals of the world has to come up with a plan, very very soon, to lay a bottom underneath its economy and society. And that is not happening at all, there's nothing happening. Instead of focusing on the people, on what will become of the children, on what the children will eat, the government is focusing on the banks. The banks are dead. The children are not. Yet.

This 3 Stooges circus is busy fixing the roof while the foundations of the house are collapsing. Economic growth, you said, Mr. President? We don't need those dead banks, and we don't need economic growth. We need to feed our children, so they can grow. This is getting serious, and it's deteriorating at the speed of light. Current policies are calamitous, and that's not just in the US. There are no guarantees that we can fix this to the point where we won't see children dying of hunger in our streets. There is, though, the guarantee that we will see them if we don't adopt a radically different approach to our problems. The banks may have financed your campaign, but it's the people who voted you in office. It's real simple: you can't save both. Time to choose. So far, so bad. A spectacular failure.