In the wake of every bust comes the political reaction.

Despite recent economic disruptions, there is still little reason to believe a full-on recession will result.

No one seems to know where the current turmoil in the financial markets is going. The continued unfolding of losses in subprime mortgages; the huge writeoffs by Citibank, Merrill Lynch, and other major financial players around the world; and the absence of a market for asset-backed securities are either temporary...

The financial markets constantly have to relearn from the past.

The real name of the Dodd-Frank Act should be the "Faith in Bureaucracy Act." This is a faith I do not share. I see no evidence that the human minds operating in regulatory bureaucracies, and driven to political defense and expansion of their own jurisdiction and power, have any superior insight into the unknowable future and its ineradicable uncertainty.

Thetwenty-firstcentury has seen the housing cycle bubble and bust. Historical precedent says it will happen again.

The mathematical models used to design and evaluate structured mortgage securities, using vast computer power and reams of data, did not save us from the consequences of all-too-human behavior.

The current financial crisis is not unprecedented, but rather a repetition of basic patterns found throughout financial history.