This is as good a summation of our collective problem as I've seen anywhere recently.

And I'm afraid I've not much to add except that it encapsulates about half of what I've been ranting about since even before we started this site last July.

The stock market roared, the regulators stirred, the unemployment rate soared and the banks continued to show great reluctance to lend money.

What else happened in 2009? Oh, right, there was a tremendous binge of book publishing related to the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2008 - and Henry Paulson's version of events isn't even out yet (coming soon - Feb. 1 - to a bookstore/online warehouse near you).