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DAVID SIROTA
Bailout is Capitalism Murdering Democracy Indeed, if there's been any lesson in the last few years, it is that authoritarian capitalism — rather than democratic capitalism — may be the dominant ideology of the 21st century. That ideology may be coming to America. The Wall Street bailout bill is a lot of things — a giveaway, a heist, a legislative manifestation of crony corruption. But it's structure is pure authoritarian capitalism.

'04 Rule Let Banks Pile Up Debt, Risk nytimes.com — Many events in Washington, on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country have led to what has been called the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. But decisions made at a brief meeting on April 28, 2004, explain why the problems could spin out of control. The agency's failure to follow through on those decisions also explains why Washington regulators did not see what was coming. On that bright spring afternoon, the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission met in a basement hearing room to consider an urgent plea by the big investment banks. They wanted an exemption for their brokerage units from an old regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on.

Banks Ramp Up Borrowing From Fed usatoday.com — Banks and investment firms ramped up borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending facility over the past week, providing fresh evidence of the credit stresses squeezing the country. The Fed's report said commercial banks averaged $44.5 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with a daily average of $39.36 billion in the previous week. The Fed report also showed that $122.1 billion worth of loans were made to money market mutual funds — via banks — to help the funds, which have been under pressure as skittish investors demand withdrawals.

DEAN BAKER
Letting the Bank Robber Fix the Bank's Books tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — In the past, I have noted the fact that Secretary Paulson's failure to recognize the housing bubble, and the economic and financial havoc that would be created by its inevitable collapse, contributed to the disaster we now face. It turns out that Secretary Paulson played an even more direct rule in bringing down our financial system.

JAY MANDLE
The Political Roots of the Financial Crisis huffingtonpost.com — Dismantling the limitations on Wall Street greed was partly achieved because the rules became outdated and the presumed regulators, who themselves opposed regulations, failed to upgrade them. But much more important in the erosion of controls has been the political clout bought by Wall Street.

PAUL KRUGMAN
Edge of the Abyss nytimes.com — The financial and economic news since the middle of last month has been really, really bad. And what's truly scary is that we're entering a period of severe crisis with weak, confused leadership. And the people who should be steering us away from that abyss are out to lunch.

ROBERT B. REICH
The Real Choice Ahead tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — If the choice is between a lousy bailout bill and economic Armageddon, I'd vote for the lousy bailout bill. But make no mistake: This is a lousy bill. PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Why Paulson's Plan is a Fraud counterpunch.org — The bailout is focused on the wrong end of the problem. The bailout should be focused on the origin of the problem, the defaulting homeowners. The bailout should indemnify defaulting homeowners and pay off the delinquent mortgages.

JOE BAGEANT
The Really Hard-to-Swallow Truth About the Bailout alternet.org — We somehow came to believe Wall Street's success was ours too, and that the bills we owed were never going to come due. Well, they are now. STEVE FRASER

The Specter of Wall Street tomdispatch.com — For well more than half a century Wall Street has enjoyed a remarkable political immunity, but matters were not always like that. Now, with history marching forward in seven league boots, we are about to revisit a time when the Street functioned as the country's lightning rod, attracting its deepest animosities and most passionate desires for economic justice and democracy.

ISAIAH J. POOLE
Cox And The Right Set Up Wall Street's Fall In 2005, our co-director Robert Borosage warned readers about the travesty of appointing Christopher Cox to the Securities and Exchange Commission. DAVID SIROTA

From Democracy to Crazy-ocracy...And Back Again? Is it possible America has become a Crazy-ocracy? That is, is it possible we aren't ruled by merely the stupid (an Idiocracy) or the corrupt (a Kleptocracy) — we are ruled by genuinely insane people? TERRANCE HEATH

Mad Money I've been trying to grasp the national global economic situation, but I've never felt I could make any sense of it. Because, no matter how many times it was explained to me, it sounded like a bunch of people playing games with Monopoly Money?. That is, until I saw a video that confirmed my worse fears. Meltdown Timeline, Updated The Meltdown 2008 timeline I created is "making a splash."