Having in mind that credit crunch is a global problem, it is weird that the governments all over the western world did not seem able to prevent the financial bubble in the first place. Don't they have experts in economy?

It's a global problem which started in the US due to (*)(*)(*)(*) poor regulation.

well, regulation should have been put in place long time ago. The banks are playing russian roulette and most of the time, they get away with it

Yes it should have been. Unfortunately it wasn't and this is the result. Now the US government is bailing out failed financial institutions to protect its economic and financial systems from collapse.

And when it's over do you think the idea of regulation will come up?

Probably not.

Privatise profits, socialise losses, that's the motto of the so-called "free traders" and "capitalists". All this talk about "risk" being taken by capitalists is just a load of old tosh. They know there's no risk because they'll scream to the government for a bailout when it hits the fan and the US taxpayer will hand money over to them. It's a financial Stockholm Syndrome.

Eventually though the whole pack of cards will collapse. And it will probably take a gobal collapse for us all to realise that capitalism would then have had its day and it must be replaced by an economic system that reflects the reality of the 21st Century and the condition of our world.

It is funny you say that, because over the last few years the regulartory rules for companies have toughen up to an extreme extent. I work for a company listed on the US stock exchange, if we fail whats calles socs complience, we can be de-listed.

And they check double check, tripple check our processes. Failure (within the company) is instant dismissal.

Your company has to comply with the regulations in place. If there were no regulations in place then your company wouldn't have to comply. And that's what has happened with the sub-prime disaster. No regulation, no compliance, utter meltdown.

Thats what I mean, I just dont understand how they got out of regulating. After the Enron collapse, the US government was all over anything that could cause this sort of thing to happen again.

I dont recall the name of the company, but I recall, maybe 10 - 15 years ago, there was a major mortage lender collapsed in New South Wales - they had been writing house loans for un-employed people and others with no means to pay the loan back

That's a good example of how things can turn turtle.
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Reminds me of Pyramid in Geelong.

Well if our libertarian friends had their way their would be NO government regulation so economic problems under their policies would go from 'manageable' to 'catastrophic'.

'yeah the free market fixes everything!'

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'A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward'. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Libertarians will find their nirvana at the same time pure anarchists find it. They will then embrace each other across the ideological divide and reach the ultimate understanding of human nature.