It isn't just banks.  GM closed below $5 today.  The time has come for the government to take a controlling stake in GM and get rid of the current management.  The collapse of GM would lead to wages in the sector being dropped to the Delphi rate that's about half what the wage is now.  The transplants will follow.  Toyota in Kentucky was caught with its pants down on this one about 2 years back.  Honda has always refused to match wages in the auto sector. The collapse of wages in the auto sector means depression, because it will create a downward spiral on wages in the areas this plants have been built.

The end result?  Depression level unemployment in Michigan and the Midwest as demand is destroyed in those regions.  Unemployment is at or near 9% in Michigan, and in auto cities in Indiana.  If you slash wages in the auto factories, people are going to default on their house, and they sure the fuck aren't going to be eating out or going to shop.  Demand destruction results in the resulting reductions in supply.  If people lose their jobs, then the people who made the products that the job losers lose their jobs too.  It's a cycle of destruction.  Same thing with wage cuts.

I'm sorry, but I don't see an adequate appreciation for the gravity of the situation from either Obama or McCain.  We've got Al Smith running against Herbert Hoover, and we're starting economic calamity down. Forgive me for being less than ecstatic about the prospects of the election to actually make a difference.


And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg