Well written article about the current financial crisis by IMF chief economic officer Simon Johnson

This article in The Atlantic discusses the current financial crisis very well. The article criticizes the

• blind faith people and the goverment have in the financial system and the de-regulatory legislation which happened in the US during the Bush administration.
• the impact of leverage in a financial system, how a small amount of speculative investment can be grown systematically into a much larger investment.
• the dismal handling of the stimulus package and continuation of the oligarchy of banks by virtue of which they still have a lot of control in the stimulus.

The article also compares the crisis to past economic crises in emerging markets. Quite a few points are noteworthy – for eg. high economic growth, corruption in governance and influence of corporations in legislation, lack of oversight in markets and unstable currency. Reminds me eerily about India.

Its depressing how collusion of even large tech companies gives rise to immediate anti-trust investigation whereas massive collusion in wall street gets rewarded with millions of dollars in bonuses. Chose the wrong industry, didn’t I?