CIVIL UNREST DUE TO THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: “Governments have so far managed to deflect attention from their role in the crash, their slipshod monitoring, by declaring themselves to be indispensible to the solution. This may save the skins of politicians in wealthier countries who can credibly and expensively try to prop up banks and sickly industries. But it does not work in countries that are heavily indebted, with bloated and exposed financial sectors. There, the irate crowds are already beginning to demand: why hasn’t a single politician resigned? What has happened to ministerial responsibility? Who will investigate government failure?”

Questions worth asking here, too.

UPDATE: Reader Santiago Valenzuela writes:

Third world countries, massively indebted and on the brink of failure, are only now beginning to ask the tough questions of their government. Will Americans wait that long as well? I know there’s a reflexive “Now, that could never happen here” response to questions of that nature, but the reason that reflex exists is because Americans have largely held their governments away from being massively entangled in their economies. That barrier no longer exists. In fact, the opposite does – Americans expect their government to ‘fix’ the problem.

It certainly could happen here. Right now the only people I see who actually say they expect it to are the survival-blogging folks.