As the sharp, stabbing pain, fear, and panic associated with rapid and visible blood loss is superseded by a panoply of chronic ailments and a general sense of unwellness, Robert Skidelsky reviews Martin Wolf's "Fixing Global Finance":

After the collapse of the dot-com boom in 2000, the US became a much less desirable place for direct foreign investment. So East Asian countries, especially China, started to buy US Treasury bonds.

In short, it was via their impact on the financing of the federal deficit that Chinese savings made it possible for the US consumer to go on a spending spree.

The fact is that the present system has suited the United States -- specifically the power holders in the United States -- just as much as it has those in China. The phrase "it has enabled the Americans to live beyond their means" is too vague to be useful. One needs to ask: which Americans? Certainly many middle- and low-income American households have been given opportunities to borrow beyond their means.

Ginia Bellafante:

There used to be a time if you didn't have money to buy something, you just didn't buy it.

Decius:

Sometimes the market drives off a cliff.

John Lanchester:

It's becoming traditional at this point to argue that perhaps the financial crisis will be good for us, because it will cause people to rediscover other sources of value. I suspect this is wishful thinking, or thinking about something which is quite a long way away, because it doesn't consider just how angry people are going to get when they realize the extent of the costs we are going to carry for the next few decades.

I get the strong impression, talking to people, that the penny hasn't fully dropped.

Recently:

I thought I was unlucky graduating into the tech bust. I had no idea.

Louis Kahn:

A good idea that doesn't happen is no idea at all.