The bailouts of big companies are reaching into the range of two trillion dollars. Two trillion. $2,000,000,000,000. Twelve zeros. Count them: twelve. That’s a lot of money.

The current crisis did not start with finance, and it won't end with finance.

Let me begin by saying what I think this crisis is not. It is not a financial crisis. It is a systemic crisis whose first serious symptom happened to be finance. But this crisis has its economic roots and its effects in manufacturing, services, and, to be sure, finance. It grows out of the relation of wages to profits across the economy. It has profound social roots in America’s households and families and political roots in government policies. The current crisis did not start with finance, and it won’t end with finance.

Dear Dr. Dollar:
Isn’t the “bailout” of Wall Street like having a rotten tooth extracted? The extraction is very unpleasant, but it beats the alternative. Even if the dentist charges an unreasonably high fee, I am still going to pay and have the job done. Later I will worry about taking better care of my teeth. So shouldn’t people quit complaining about the bailout, suck it up, and get the job done?
—Peter Wagner, Weston, Mass.

Walking in Davis Square two days before the election, I saw a rather dour-looking young man seated on a high pedestal holding a handwritten sign that read “No on Socialism.” Heading on by him, I looked at the back of his sign. It said, “Is Obama an American?”

There was absolutely nothing flawed in former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s ideology or his understanding of what drives the market.

For the next few weeks, Open Media Boston will showcase local progressive views on the financial crisis - what caused it, what's happening with it, and how we can get out of it - in a special section called "Boston Responds to the Financial Crisis." If you'd like to submit a text, audio or video piece for the section, please email us at info@openmediaboston.org, and let us know what you're thinking about doing, or just show us what you've done. We won't accept everything, but we'll always give a fair shot to all submissions.