Marc tweeted this recently, and it's worth a post. Umair Haque at "Bubble Generation":

"It's the oft-unspoken thought on many lips: America's in decline. The glory days are over, the train's left the station. So: is this a great decline? Unfortunately--probably. And I'd suggest that when you take a hard, serious look into the economy--when you voyage past it's superficial, largely irrelevant position in terms of budgets, "gross product", or "unemployment"--that great decline is deeper and darker than pundits, beancounters, and politicians think, want to admit, or even suspect.

The great crisis is a story of structural decline: a decline that's hardwired into the patterns amongst this great machine's many parts. They've settled, over the last three decades and more, into fundamentally bad, toxic equilibria..."

Note that the criticisms of finance and its role that follow are coming from someone who worked in the field, including as a derivatives trader. Haque is the author of The New Capitalist Manifesto. Haven't read it yet, but based on his blog post, it looks interesting.

Marc's tweet asks if he should be depressed or challenged. Well, what do you think?