This is an under covered issue and Krugman has great credibility and has offered good examples on what is happening. People need to be reminded that there was a great book in 1989 called "Inside Job - The Looting of America's Savings & Loans" by Stephen Pizzo, Mary Fricker and Paul Muolo about another financial crisis that hurt many people and made some others very rich.

Local Wisconsin media have not given this perspective of who is financing some of the protestors. As an alderman in a small Wisconsin city, I am faced with a major cut in shared revenue in the near future which can only be balanced with more freedom to curb benefits and wages. Currently the state prevents us from going below the previous year's budget for police, fire and library expenditures, while the unions seek 3% or higher wage increases and we face 15% and higher costs for retirement and health benefits for fulltime employees. Generous wages and benefits achieved by teacher's negotiations also put pressure on local governments which are experiencing challenges with all revenue areas as tax and utility collections ... More »

We have not seen enough on this changing potential of Turkey as an economic and useful leader in a key region of the world. This is good information for investors and others.

This is helpful for its new information and summary of history, as well as the tip that Congress should be aware and involved in this increasing commitment by the US. How we are funding it in the current rough economy?

It would have been more useful with mention of a much stronger 2010 book release "AFTERSHOCK Protect Yurself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown" by 3 non-economists: David Wiedemer, PhD, Robert A Wiedemer and Cindy Spitzer. Is there enough proof in the book, if not in this article, that the middle-class isn't just experiencing a rough time and a change in values, priorities and goals?

Banks looking for most profitable way to comply should have been higher in the story. Would look for strong follow-up on all points. This is terrific detail that no one else seems to be covering!

Would like to have known more about the portion of active journalists, retired journalists, ages, educations etc. of participants. There is a religious fervor right now about believing some of the strangest things and totally discounting accurate history of events 10-100 years ago, let alone more recent history.

Very concise and hits 5 ws & h news structure, answering most readers' immediate questions - especially the whys.

This is valuable but requires a translator -- someone with biology, botany and advanced mathematics in their DNA to bring it to average business people, food preparers and families. The message is clear that we need to know more than 90-day research to understand the possible dangers of genetically modified food items. This is the best piece I've seen in years of controversy. Thanks for sharing it.

Greg is correct. We need to be scared and continue asking the right questions rather than accepting bankers statements that it was the little people who bought houses beyond their budgets who created the entire mess. Investigative journalists and business writers need to dig into events such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervisions's revised capital framework which was shouting for lower reserves and riskier behavior world wide....2006-2007. The damage is deep, duplicity rampant and those spa tanned banking executives talking to Congress were very different than the pale faced, non-spa folks on the Congressional side. I wonder why no one has mentioned that point!

David Brooks is dealing with the part of the Haiti story that normally journalists and government officials deal with a year or more after the tragedy. By talking about it now, aid workers and ngos might finally get it right in Haiti and set a formula that could work in Somalia and elsewhere.

It would have been better if he had added information about Basel II which was to have reduced the need for capital reserves. European banks were moving faster to adopt this and the US was lagging and US banks complaining it was making them less competitive. (See CFO Oct 2007 magazine's "One Nation, Left Behind" by Rob Garver.) Issues of CFO magazine were hinting at many problems early on and mainstream media were not noticing.