You people need to understand something. There is a global dimension to this financial crisis, which US politicians and the MSM would prefer to downplay. Paulson is not in charge any more, neither is Bush.

Sure, other economies will take a hit, but it's Uncle Sam who is really going to get smacked this week. And deservedly so.

Over the past decade, the US foreign debt has doubled. Japan and China alone now hold 47% of the US foreign debt! And they are the ones who will dictate how this crisis gets solved. It's really not up to the idiots in Washington any more.

Listen to Paulson:

"We have a global financial system and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world, and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will."

I wish I could count how many times Bush officials have used that word "believe"!

China is keeping quiet for now. But as TIME (link at sig) says, top Chinese leaders have already been burned too many times:

No. Not again. Not unless you structure a deal in such a way that we simply cannot lose. Otherwise, goodbye.

Here's one Chinese official:

"You're basically looking at structuring a deal at this point in which there is no downside — none. Even if a company goes under, like Lehman, you're first in line to get paid a return on your assets. Take it or leave it."

The G7 countries are busy talking but not saying much. German Finance Ministry spokesman said:

"We have to see if and to what extent those measures make sense for Germany."

Under pressure from abroad, the U.S. Treasury yesterday flipped and decided to include institutions outside of the U.S.A. in their rescue plan. This is how Paulson explained it away:

"The American people don’t care who owns the financial institution. If the financial institution in this country has problems, it’ll have the same impact whether it’s U.S.- or foreign-owned."

So massive wads of US taxpayer money will be propping up foreign investors and foreign-owned companies. And it's all thanks to Bush.

Paulson blames the crisis on "irresponsible lending and irresponsible borrowing." But he doesn't mention that it is the Bush administration which has borrowed most aggressively, to fund their obscene oil wars and other get-rich-quick privatization schemes.

Here's Paulson again:

“This is a humbling, humbling time for the United States of America.”

Well, he got that right! Or as Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky said:

"The free market for all intents and purposes is dead in America."

And he's a Republican.

Rogen Cohen nearly gets it:

The world has changed in the past decade. There's been a steady transfer of wealth away from the United States in a shift most Americans have not yet grasped. But there has been no accompanying transfer of responsibility. New powers are free-riding as if it were still the American century.

It's not...

Let's be clear: This is an American mess forged by the American genius for newfangled financial instruments in an era where the mantra has been that government is dumb and the markets are smart and risk is nonexistent. The responsibility for undoing the debacle is chiefly American, too.

But...

But then Cohen's article (link at sig) takes a rather disturbing twist. He petulantly demands that foreign governments and institutions should come to the USA's aid, because they also helped to create this crisis. That's a bit like me telling my bank that I refuse to pay my credit card debt because they should have known I was an irresponsible drunk and a gambler.

Cohen posits Damien Hirst's ability to sell formaldehyde sheep for millions last week as evidence that foreigners still have heaps and heaps of cash. Well, that's just stupid. For one thing, art is often considered a safe long-term investment when the stockmarket is volatile. But more importantly, the people buying Hirst's works are just as likely to be rich US citizens as anyone else.

Let's be clear: it is the richest of the rich in the USA, the top one percent of US Citizens, and their enablers in Washington and on Wall Street, who caused this crisis. And they are the people who should be paying for it. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

To suddenly start blaming foreigners is dangerously xenophobic. To expect them to bail out Bush's friends, when they have already lost millions, is just stupid.

For a paid media commentator "expert", it is also irresponsible. Cohen might like to think about how Hitler demonized foreigners (especially Jews) for Germany's post-WWI economic malaise.

And yet I fear that large sections of the US population might be open to just such a nationalist and irrational message in coming weeks.

"We are not going to sell this pig without first putting lipstick on it!"

I am writing from Australia, where we play a fools game with Wall Street on a regular basis. In this case, Paulson hinted at a government solution on Friday afternoon, pushing up the markets with a bit of optimism.

He's had a window of opportunity to put some meat on the details over the weekend, but seems like squabbling in the backrooms is taking precedent.

So cautious optimism prevails among the greedy brokers, who (unlike most readers here) don't give a stuff if the taxpayers carry the load. So the Aussie market is up 3% at lunchtime (after a 1 hour delay before the bell while everyone tried to clarify what the end of short-selling actually meant).