The kind of trouble we’re in

“Nobody knows what kind of trouble we’re in”
- Gram Parsons, One Hundred Years from Now
What makes the current financial crisis so terrifying is the lack of ability to control it.
The news is so manufactured these days that we’re rarely surprised. For every 9/11 and Katrina, there are hundreds of completely foreseeable things that we pretend to be surprised about.
(Did anyone really worry that either of the Clintons would not give Obama wholehearted support at the DNC?)
But the House’s failure to pass the $800 billion rescue/bailout package the first time was unexpected.
Even more unexpected was the cascading market collapses we’ve seen since.