I have been trying to make sense of this crisis. Two things are becoming apparent.
First, one thing has become obvious, those 'in the know' - meaning Central bankers, IMF, big business and Government treasury officials - are very very worried. Why? Surely now with these massive credit backing moves by UK, EU and US, we should be getting back to business as usual, aside from the fact that US has been heading into recession, which it was doing before all this began... so what's news there?
The reason for the cold hand of fear over the hearts of those in the know has now been revealed. It is called CDS. Credit Default Swaps.
I won't go into the technical details, except to say this was a clever method devised by the capital markets, behind the scenes, which they thought would protect them against risky financial dealings. These financial dealings are 'assets' which get traded between large financial institutions, and in themselves are estimated to be around $10trn.
The CDS's which are also traded, and which were supposed to provide security behind these asset trades, but which instead have done the opposite, by becoming nearly worthless, are estimated at around $55trn. A market valuation more than twice the size of the combined GDP of US, Japan and EU.
A whole that size in the global financial markets, is beyond the capacity of taxpayer's funds to rescue. All governments are impotent to heal this one. That's why the faces of certain people have been drained of blood.
The second thing is what does this mean?
It means the economic paradigm, plus the architecture which has grown from it, is now defunct. It also means the political paradigm of the 'right' has now been completely discredited. This is why McCain is losing in the US elections. People know - even if not the details, they know intuitively.
The implications of this are still only beginning to dawn on people. But we are at one of those major turning points in the history of our species. We are entering a new era, in which the community is replacing the individual. This is the crisis of the 'selfish gene'.
This can be witnessed in the US elections, where Republicans can't compete on issues like the Iraq war, or the economic situation, so they are having to fall back on the old ongoing civil war within the US. The Culture war.
They think they can stir up the Red tide against the Blue revolution of the 60's. But times have changed. It's not the 60's or the 80's anymore. People are scared. Lies will no longer win elections. This is now more a moral crisis than an economic one.
We stand at the end of the beginning, and from here on, we will watch the heart of humanity being tested.
The big boogie looming over this crisis, is world government. How long will humanity put off this obvious necessity? And where will the people and the ideas and the architecture come from, which will usher in such a phase?
Personally, I sense this crisis is just the softener. The storms that are coming will be far larger.
The world of humanity is now facing two revolutions - economic and spiritual. It is truly an exciting time to be living. But the weird thing, behind all this, is that the solution for each individual hasn't changed since the dawn of time. The mind, and the techniques, and the emphasis - these shift with the ages. But the real work has been the same, and remains the same.