"There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion"

Would-be pundits such as Brian Gaynor et al who offer their opinions on the collapses and troubles in finance houses might want to add to their researches the subjects "creative destruction" and "malinvestment" (a misallocation of resources often following a period of artificially excessive credit)-- two concepts without an understanding of which no punditry could be considered informed -- and the story of the 1970s bailout of Britain's "secondary banks" should be another topic worth reading [hat tip Elijah].

Writing in 1949, Ludwig von Mises might have been talking to today's pundits:

There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as the final and total catastrophe of the currency involved.

If only the pundits were listening. There are no shortcuts to the inevitable. Tell failing finance houses "Screw up and we will bail you out," and what do you think that will do to the number of screw ups, and to the amount of extra risk the screw-ups take with your money?