I'd like to say he's thinking what I'm thinking . . .

. . . but, as usual, he's ahead of me. Living in the UK as a dual national, the irony of the Labour Party's unfortunate predicament certainly has not escaped me. Brits look at me funny when I say the current crisis, really, can be laid at the now buried feet of Ronald Reagan (and those of Thatcher, I suppose). Unfettered dergulation and subsequent unceasing degradation of government capacity to regulate effectively inevitably led to massive consolidated financial services firms maximising profit and senior executive pay at the expense of meaningful risk management. The fact that New Labour and Clintonites bought into the charade hook, line and sinker only testifies to the power of the cultural shift that took place in the early '80s . . . as well as to the power of cynical political calculation, delusion and the willing collaboration of a sycophantic, incompetent and conflicted newsmedia.

As we and our children pony up to pay for this mess, don't ever forget these simple facts.