Title: Bust
Published: Ventura County Star
Date: Sept. 21, 2008
About this cartoon: What an unbelievable ride for financial institutions -- absolute giants like Merrill Lynch, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns and huge federal institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac either in deep trouble, going bust or being bailed out by the government, with a stock market plunge of nearly 1,000 points in two days. What went wrong? Greed, lack of oversight, bad deals bought and sold in other bad deals, wild commodities speculation, high-risk mortgage dealing and a go-wild free market mantra, among other things. And ultimately, we are all on the hook for this.