It's the end of the World as we know it.. and I feel fine

The chaos in the financial markets bring REM to mind. Is it the "end of the world as we know it"?
Written history is replete with those events or moments that have been labelled turning points. Sometimes they have been clearly recognized at the time (the French Revolution), but more often not. In time it will of course become clear if the unravelling of the US financial markets is more than just another hiccup in the ups and downs of the global system. There is something about this one though that feels different. The scale of the excess of the economic hubris of the past few decades threatens a commensurate consequence. And that consequence will be a clear end to the general experience of improvement in living standards that has characterised the Western world since the beginning of the Great Boom in the late nineteen forties. It is indeed the end of the world as we know it, but just as REM said " I feel fine".