'Collateral Damage' from friendly fire, I suppose !

And misery loves company.

Not only are we paying now for "years of excess," carelessness and escapades, we are taking the world with us. The world that used to fear our might now has reasons to fear our mighty economy.

We will survive -- perhaps-- but what parts of the world can we help survive while we are trying to keep our head above water ?

— beethy, CA

I hope I see more article on how much global change is hurting the poor in other countries and what has been helpful. Certainly we need to separate successful programs from experimental efforts like wind up laptops. But we cannot be ignorant to the impact Wall Streets excesses on the poor in other countries, and our own. In our own county jobs have been exported leaving being a landscape of hopelessness. In other countries children have been forced into hard labor. These are the programs that should be cut. Programs that have insured that poor people everywhere get medicine, food and education benefit us all.

— swp, Poughkeepsie

There is an aspect here ironic,
As worldwide bailouts become chronic,
With backdoor control
Of Finance, on the whole,
A Left turn, sans acts histrionic?

— Larry Eisenberg, New York City

This latest crisis exposes the fundamental flaw in the private banking - "financial industry" (an oxymoron if ever there was).

As each of these sovereign economies including our own is interdependent on public -- i.e. tax monies, how is this any less than taxation without representation all the way around? I seem to recall some folks taking great offense to such paradigms.

— freedata, Long Island NY

New York Times' Editorial is very timely on a subject that needs immediate attention of those who are working very hard to put the derailed global banking and financial systems back on track.

Their immediate priority appears to be the repair of the chocked credit pipeline for the smooth flow of personal and institutional credits in United States, Europe and rest of the world. The systems and institutional structures are almost in place and if everything goes as smooth as anticipated then the speedy recovery can be confidently hoped.

However, the editorial has pointed out an important area which has been left at the mercy of IMF “flush with cash --- $200 billion plus an additional $50 billion in standing credit arrangements with donor countries --- to mobilize if needed.”

IMF, as usual, is using arm twisting techniques to provide even the much required “financial breather” to the financially starving under-developed and extremely fragile countries. Unfortunately, the apparent arm twisting measures of IMF will put unbearable burden on those people of the developing countries who are struggling hard to keep their body and soul together. On top of that the totally disappointing state of governance in these countries is further adding to and complicating the seriousness of the miseries of the people.

The problem is that even if the countries like Pakistan are given the finances that are needed to just meet the immediate debt payment needs then nothing is left to spend on public welfare and social uplift schemes.

The way out is to cut the unnecessary expenses on the luxuries of the ruling elite and their cronies who are the real cause of the problem. First of all they do not have the requisite far-sight and the capability to come up with strategies to explore the unexplored local natural and human resource potential for coming out of the mess their countries are in. Secondly, whatever aid these countries get from institutions like IMF / ADB and World Bank is mostly misappropriated and squandered on creating institutional structures and placing incompetent non-professionals on important positions as in return for political affiliations and favors. Thirdly, these incompetent and non-professional heads of the institutions are least bothered about the adverse political and diplomatic fallout of their incompetence.

It is just like moving a “criminal” from the “prison” to the “presidency.”

In a situation like this even if the financial gurus of United States and Europe succeed in bailing out their local, regional and global banks and financial institutions, their failure to properly address the problems in the countries which are of geo-strategic importance to them both economically and militarily will definitely have an adverse effect on their overall performance in the not distant a future.

It is suggested that a mechanism should be put in place for the appointment of thorough professionals in the institutions of public interest.

— Zahid Hussain Khalid, Islamabad

A sneeky choice of words: "they must also be prepared to PROVIDE billions to poorer countries that did not cause this crisis but are nevertheless its victims."

"Provide" can mean "lend to", or it can mean "give to."

If lending is what everyone has in mind, wasn't lending to risky borrowers how we got into this mess in the first place?

— TN, Friendswood, Texas

Pakistan has suffered a lot in war on terror, which has crippled the economy and businesses. The ordinary people are suffering and government is struggling to find a solution.

Now with world financial crisis Pakistan need at least 10 billion dollar to pay for import within next 30 days. The Friends of Pakistan should react immediately for a rescue package, as Pakistan is a non NATO ally.

— Chaudhary, Islamabad

The global economy resembles little more than a giant pyramid scheme that has crashed.

— AER, Cambridge, England

The collateral damage among 'victim' countires is going to be extreme and we are grateful to see this opinion piece as more attention will have to be given to the great masses of humanity who will suffer not from a loss of investments or business opportunities but rather from a loss of access to life's basic necessities.

The export of food aid should be a priority over 'Unregulated' economic aid ... for the expenditure of a billion a month in food aid as opposed to 10 billion a month in war expenditures will do far more to heal international relations and bring about peace than any other venture abroad.

This is not welfare for poor nations .. it is an investment in global security at home and abroad.

— Barrie O. Ward, Weldon Saskatchewan Canada

Coming out of WW II, the US was threatened with a comparable economic crisis. The military contracts that had lifted us out of the Depression were gone and our logical trading partner, Europe, was prostrate and unable to buy the goods we desperately needed to sell and it needed to buy.

The solution: the Marshall Plan. We gave Europe the equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars to buy US machines, tools, foodstuffs, and other items. With US technical assistance, Europe bought and used these items, rebuilding its own economy while giving US factories the capital needed to stay in business and establishing a secure future market for US goods as the European economy recovered.

The US should now revive its economy and repair its shattered image abroad by offering Marshall Plans to underdeveloped nations in Africa and South and Central America as well as possibly the Middle East. The focus should be on green industries and sustainable development.

— Bill, Terrace, BC

Could the awareness that we are so interconnected financially lead to peace?

I just try to live a simple life in this confusing financial mess. I remember that Jesus taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer which only asks "give us this day our daily bread."

— ShowMe, Missouri

The big meaning behind our present crisis is precisely that we now live in an "interconnected world" as never before. Moral: and we cannot unconnect it. The old motto was "One Nation under God." Can we now complete this sentence: "One World under...?

— Howard E. Cook, Athens, TN

The rich world has just pumped enough money into the banks they failed to regulate to feed and clothe and house the entire third world for a decade or more.

Am I the only one who sees how shameful that is?

— monty41, Australia

You failed to report that Africa overall is still expected to have 6% growth over the next two years......remember, this is a first world crisis - the USA has been plundered so badly that it is now a developed country with an emerging market economic problem.

Lots of countries are not sharing the pain because they didn't follow the deregulation that the US has - Canada come to mind - they haven't had to bail anybody out!

Report on that, please, stop thinking the USA is still the center of the economic world - that horse left the station in 2007.

— Rico, Alaska

Where did all the wealth go?

What will it take for Pakistan (or one of the former Soviet republics) under the circumstances to part with critical nuclear technology or even a bomb itself, if a certain wealthy individual from Saudi Arabia or one of his cohorts came calling?

Can it now be said that socialism is not the only economic system that distributes misery? That the suffering engendered and foisted on the unsuspecting dreamers of the American Dream by the agents of unbridled capitalism -- the only kind there is, really -- is at least as vexing as the variety attributed to socialism?

How does a man owning 7 homes (and counting) and 14 cars claim with a straight face that he is serving a cause greater than himself -- whatever that could possibly mean? Do some of us live in a parallel world out there where the concepts of "excess", "the unconscionable", "'honor" etc. either do not exist or mean the opposite of what they stand for in the world most of us live?

— rmgrmg, CT

Your recommendations are good examples of distribution of wealth. The question I have is, where will the money come from? We already have 10 trillion dollars of national debt. Are you recommending that we add more to national debt and print more money to save the world?

— Krishna, USA

Once upon a time, there was a financial crisis set off in the United States and heard 'round the world.

The bombmakers were Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, the Community Reinvestment Act, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank--Democrats all, but the high and mighty New York Times, forever loath to look at Democrats' mischief, instead pointed fingers elsewhere. But within six months, all would be well...thanks to the Bush administration working in concert with governments around the world.

But would The New York Times ever admit it had gotten it wrong. No, because by that time The New York Times had moved on to hammer away at the McCain/Palin administration, following President John and Vice President Palin landslided "The One" on Election Day 2008.

And all was right with the world....

— Warren Gabreski, Chicago

There have been several reports about Iceland--how its rich bankers ignored numerous warning signs and pursued the same greedy practices as Euro and American bankers. It makes no sense at all to say USA taxpayers owe Iceland a penny. In the [financial] heyday, chic boutiques and luxury cars flooded the country. I should work to pay for their greed/corruption . . . why? Same re: other countries. Greed and corruption is/was not limited to our shores or W.Europe. This article is another NYT boost for socialism. Corruption in places where our hard earned dollars are sent (without our consent) is well-known to be endemic. If they failed to employ prudent measures, that's not our problem. Just as Congress larded the bailout with pork [e.g., wooden arrow makers] every greedy corrupt hand around the world will looking for a windfall, now that the $$$$$ has started to flow.

— sunny, usa

I am not an economist and I'm not embarrassed to say so - economists don't know anything anyway. Whether the small nations suffer along with the big ones is probably not debatable - of course they do. The irony here is that they will ultimately be great beneficiaries of the Wall Street collapse, since Europe - having opened its eyes - will now slowly start to move away from depending on U.S. trade and finance. This means Latin America, India, Russia, and China will benefit, along with myriads of smaller nations. That meeting that Sarkozy has in mind? Keep your eyes on it.

— Jaime Herrera, El Paso, Texas

So basically these countries have become so dependent on our largess that when we are having problems we should divert the precious resources needed to recover our economy to prop up their various corrupt or socialist systems. Seriously?

If you don't save the host first, nothing will save the parasites that feed of it.

— Tom, Florida

I keep reading and remembering. The financial crisis is being run by the same bunch that ran Katrina. "Yer doin' a great job there, Hanky!" There were plenty of warnings, resolutely ignored by the "free marketeers" in the White House who believed in the "ownership society".

The international approach I see is an every country for itself approach. We'll be treated the way we've treated everyone else. I see less money for other countries because more money will be needed at home all over the world.

Let's see, the last two eight year GOP presidents have both presided over major financial meltdowns at the end of their second terms. Prior to that the previous two term GOP was Nixon who didn't finish his second term.

Why would anyone vote for a GOP for prez? The treasury has already been looted to the walls forever by the Bush/Cheney gang who acted like Rove's permanent majority was already a done deal and no one would ever be any the wiser.

— Rick Taft, Woodbury, MN