Wall Street/Main Street

In financial crisis blogging today:

1. If you read nothing else, see this Yves Smith rundown of the seriousness of the situation. The charts are very helpful, if extremely depressing.

2. Steven Malanga explains how it's convenient to blame Wall Street for this mess, but a lot of the blame begins with mortgage fraud on Main Street.

3. George Will, skeptical about the ability of the state to manage so much money, says the massive problem before us today is not even the biggest one. This crisis, which will deliver a heavy blow to the nation's economic prospects, hits just as the Boomers are starting to retire and depend on a productive and growing economy to care for them in their dotage.

4. John Schwenkler, on why ordinary saps shouldn't be afraid to voice an opinion about how to handle this mess:

I am very much out of my depth here, and obviously there is nothing in the frantic reading I've done over the past few days that has done much to change that. But a public that keeps its mouth shut and lets the elite consensus drive the discussion does not a responsible democracy make: there are lots very fundamental issues being raised by all of this, and none of us should feel obliged to keep quiet about them. I for one can vividly recall telling my roommate that we should trust the government in its buildup to the Iraq war; while this is obviously a different situation than that, Daniel is right that still plenty of space - and indeed, plenty of need - for non-expert dissent.

5. Barbara Ehrenreich says one reason we got into this mess is a fascination with the snake-oil "power of positive thinking" nonsense that Americans choogle like Gatorade on a hot day. Up with pessimism, I say! Ehrenreich:

Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos, at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendants, was a grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings, and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still fail; you certainly wouldn't get anywhere by adjusting your attitude or dreamily "visualizing" success.

Calvinists thought "negatively," as we would say today, carrying a weight of guilt and foreboding that sometimes broke their spirits. It was in response to this harsh attitude that positive thinking arose -- among mystics, lay healers and transcendentalists -- in the 19th century, with its crowd-pleasing message that God, or the universe, is really on your side, that you can actually have whatever you want, if the wanting is focused enough.

When it comes to how we think, "negative" is not the only alternative to "positive." As the case histories of depressives show, consistent pessimism can be just as baseless and deluded as its opposite. The alternative to both is realism -- seeing the risks, having the courage to bear bad news and being prepared for famine as well as plenty. We ought to give it a try.