Photos And Charts

Image is that of Elaine Meinel Supkis in her 2/20/2008 article entitled Systems Failure where she says: "As the US sector of global banking continues to collapse, the focus on the housing sector has obscured the true dimensions of the over-extension of collective debt. During this last year, I have been increasingly angry about the lack of savings and the attempts to reinflate markets while ignoring the need for capital. Now the revenge of the bond buyers is here. The true nature of who has been buying what is slowly heaving into view. We can't have a capitalist society with no capital. Any more than trying to have a capitalist society but no purchasing power in the working class".

And on 2/28/2008 Jeremy R. Cooke and Darrell Preston report in their Bloomberg article: "Auction-rate bond failures rose to about 71% this week... The amount of auctions that failed to draw enough buyers to a market that also includes debt of student lenders and closed- end mutual funds increased from 69% last week... States and municipalities are fleeing the auction-rate market after it began collapsing about seven weeks ago..."