The Wall Street Crisis in One Paragraph

Wow - Forbes sums up the Wall Street liquidity crisis perfectly in one graf!
Nice work!

The U.S. -- and global -- financial system has been rocked over the past year by instabilities arising from the U.S. subprime crisis. Imprudent lending to American homeowners for overpriced real estate has led to a global credit crisis as loan defaults have brought into question the value of mortgage-backed securitiesthat provided the ultimate financing. That has led to a withdrawal of lenders from many of the world's credit markets, freezing up the banking system and calling into question the value of debt securities and insurance on them. (See"Too Clever By Half" and "Derivatives And Dangerous Times.")

And Fishbowl NY/Mediabistro also reports nervously...

"this $700 million bailout proposal (it's actually only three pages long) that is currently hurtling its way through Congress (deadline Friday), if it is passes, will be the biggest transfer of power from the legislature into the hands of the administration...ever."

Is this the end of the world as we know it?