KEY POINTS:
It seems everyone has an opinion on how to fix the American economic crisis. Retired governors of the Federal Reserve are being wheeled out on to every US news channel to give their insight and projections.
Former Wall St executives are being quoted in major newspapers.
Political commentator
Chris Trotter had a novel idea - give money to mortgage holders, not Wall St execs, and kickstart the economy through a trickle-up effect.
And Russell Crowe, who played a mathematical genius in a film, believed that gave him special authority on how to solve the Wall St freefall. He took Trotter's idea one step further and urged Congress to give everyone in America a million dollars.
He told talkshow host Jay Leno if they do, people will spend it. They'll pay off their mortgage, they'll invest, they'll buy stuff that will stimulate the economy and cost just a fraction of the nearly trillion-dollar bail-out the US Congress voted for on Thursday.
Um, no, Russ, it won't. I only just passed School C maths but I know that 300m times a million won't be 300b - it's 300 trillion. Still, at least he's trying. As are most people.
P Diddy, the godfather of ghetto gaudy, bemoaned in a tongue-in-cheek kind of a way on his Facebook site, that due to rising fuel costs, he was giving up his private jet and resorting to travelling American Airlines. First class, mind you, but still a mighty come-down for an image-conscious rapper.
Does this economic crisis respect no boundaries? He would do well to follow a piece of advice from a mate of mine, who knows what he's talking about: "If it flies, floats or fornicates, you're better off renting than buying".
Words for millionaires to live by in these harsh economic times.
Now the rescue package has been approved, the finger of blame is being pointed. Bloated execs and their stupendous bonuses were the first targets and justifiably so, but now, it appears that everyone must take a portion of the blame.
The previous administration for lax financial regulations that allowed, and even encouraged, institutions to lend to poor credit risks; middle class and middle income householders who used their homes as ATMs and borrowed against them to fund flat-screen TVs and trips abroad; and gimme, gimme now Generation Ys who simply do not comprehend life without HP or credit.
It seems our parents' generation got it right, after all. If they didn't have the money for a dining table and chairs, they bought the table and sat on covered beer crates until they'd saved enough for the matching chairs.
And they weren't given home loans unless they could find a good, solid deposit. None of this 95 per cent mortgage nonsense.
So we're all culpable, really. The banks, for trying to get people to take up lines of credit they didn't need and couldn't really afford.
Greedy, delusional corporate executives speculating on the basis of testosterone and arrogance. Consumers who have taken a demand-feeding approach to shopping, refusing to countenance saving for what they want.
One commentator on US television said the only good position to be in right now was a cash position or a foetal position - in other words, the cash-rich or the unborn. Everybody else is affected. And it will take a 180-degree shift back to the days of our parents and grandparents, where being in debt was an uncomfortable situation, before we'll come right.
