Chomsky: "The roots [of the crisis] go back to the liberalization of finance in the early 1970s."

Loan to em all and let the market sort em out. The massacre goes on... Chomsky tells us what's happening in the economic collapse today. The word "Credit" comes from the latin 'credere' meaning 'to believe' or 'to trust.' The banks don't trust each other anymore, the government doesn't trust the people, and the people don't trust the government, much less each other. The general collapse of trust in society goes hand in hand with the general collapse of magic 'credit' money; the only way we've known how to help one another out is by promising to pay back the favor, and unthinking gift has been taken over by exchange. Is it any wonder that we've become so alienated? We have an ideological crisis as well as a financial one in this country: America doesn't trust itself, doesn't believe in itself, and is lashing out aimlessly like a scared child who can't be the big tough bully anymore. American politicos and financiers wanted money for nothing, and they created massive amounts of fantasy money on top of their unstable holdings. Now a lot of the safety valves appear to be broken.