The Economy

I'm getting a new mortgage so I've had a tiny glimpse into the new credit environment. The hurdles today are immensely greater than I recall in the past (which is undoubtedly a criticism of the past more than the present). And then you read a story like this, suggesting that Fannie Mae is essentially doomed and this, suggesting that a very big bank may go under in the near future, and you wonder if, from the long view, historians will look back at this time and see a looming freight-train that we haven't quite focused on yet. I don't know. But it doesn't look good.