The worsening US subprime crisis has turned in to the "financial hurricane of the century" that is wreaking havoc on Wall Street.
On September 15, the Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America. The US government has agreed to provide a $85 billion emergency loan to rescue the huge insurer American International Group (AIG). The three "bomb blasts" rocked Wall Street to the core, sending shockwaves through the US economy and very likely the presidential election as well.
Now even Wall Street's professional optimists have given up predicting exactly when their industry might stabilize. One senior executive at a top investment bank suggested recently that there was no ending in sight to the crisis.
