From GG:

The global financial system is much LARGER, FASTER, and COMPLEX than the nation-states that are trying to bail them out. As a result, nation-state intervention won’t return things to the status quo. What it will do, however, is tightly couple western nation-states to the now inevitable failure in the financial system (this is akin to lashing a dingy to the Titanic to prevent it from sinking). The rampant proliferation of bankrupt and hollow states is now likely inevitable.

I was looking at a copy of Dwell magazine recently, and for some reason there was a half-page section at the back of it which was a little list of nouveau vocabulary words relating to housing, commerce and community. There were lots of words like “privatopia” and “citistate” (spelled like citigroup), words which seemed to indicate that on even a consumer trend level, certain companies are gearing up towards a shift away from the concept of the nation state down to a sort of corporatized regionalism. I smell big changes in the wind.

One other thing I wanted to say about home-ownership: this is as good a place to tack it on as any… a lot of people buy homes to become independent of the landlord-renter relationship. But really, if you have a mortgage, then isn’t the bank just essentially the landlord you’re paying rent to?