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TROUBLE IN RIVER CITI….Back in the hazy days of early 2008, Countrywide failed. But hey — they were hugely exposed to subprime mortgages, so that was hardly a surprise. Don’t read too much into it. Then Bear Stearns failed. But they were the weakest of the investment banks and had unusual derivative exposures. The others were probably OK. Then Fannie and Freddie failed. But they were GSAs. And Lehman Brothers went under. But Richard Fuld had really screwed the pooch, and the federal bailout plan would keep the other investment banks OK. But then Merrill got eaten, and Morgan and Goldman turned themselves into bank holding companies. No more investment banks. But at least the big money center banks were basically OK, right?

So tell me: now that Citigroup seems to be on the brink of failure, what are we supposed to think? Is anyone safe? Is Brad DeLong right, and full-scale Swedish style nationalization is the only real option still open to us? Does Congress really want to go into recess without passing some kind of major stimulus package before January 20? Really?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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