Capitalism and Greed

It is immensely exciting to witness the near capitulation of Fannie and Freddie for it bears the following implication:

a. The US brand of capitalism is not insulated from disaster - the US will no longer be able to stand on a economic ethos high ground and preach the 'goodness' of their brand of capitalism

b. Much of the failings can be attributed to greed and human nature. The US financial systems have their internal checks and balances, but human greed cannot be easily checked nor balanced. How can we prevent financial institutions from leveraging to the tills, when everyone is doing the same?

The current de-leveraging process will take years to unwind, and the excesses built up over the last decade will take as much, if not more time to work off.

Expect the worst and hope for the best.