Oh dear.  Looks like it’s time for my semi-annual retirement post

Obviously the complexity of this new phase of the crisis (Robosigner?) has advanced beyond my capacity to add much to the discussion.  While I’ll be maintaining a presence behind the “Relevant Articles” list on the sidebar and the NY Fed Update posts most Fridays, you’ll probably see less of my by-line on Doom’s front page for a while provided nothing really outrageous sets off a hasty rant.

Like the man says, You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.  And even with a vertical learning curve ahead, it would seem that my chances of folding into a deeper understanding of BSE look more promising than holding Geithner back from his next idiocy touching on the level of guarantee on Agency Debt.  I recognized this when cellular automata came up in the FoldIt! global game chat and I misspoke Wolfram’s triangle as “Rule 130″ instead of Rule 30, which clearly came out of way too much time agonizing over FASB Rules 133 & 140 in recent years.

But first, just one more brief post …

That wonderful title quote (the Queen was “not amused” with the London School of Economics a while ago) comes from about half-way through Part 4 of CBC Doc Zone’s four-part video series Meltdown (all four hours are now available to watch online). That last episode was the best of the four and summed up a Canadian overview of the crisis to now.  In spite of the scary music and Lorne Greene -style narrator they managed to achieve a pretty wide perspective.

• HOUR 1: The Men Who Crashed the World – Greed and recklessness by the titans of Wall Street triggers the largest financial crash since the Great Depression. It’s left to US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, himself a former Wall Street banker, to try and avert further disaster.
• HOUR 2: A Global Tsunami – The meltdown’s devastation ripples around the world from California to Iceland and China. Facing economic ruin, desperate world leaders are at each other’s throats.
• HOUR 3: Paying the Price – The victims of the meltdown fight back. In Iceland, protestors force a government to fall. In Canada, ripped off autoworkers occupy their plant. And in France, furious union members kidnap their bosses.
• HOUR 4: After the Fall – Investigators begin to sift through the meltdown’s rubble. Shaken world leaders question the very foundations of modern capitalism while asking: could it all happen again?

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