DAVID ROTHKOPF
9/11 Was Big. This Is Bigger. washingtonpost.com — Two September shocks will define the presidency of George W. Bush. Stunningly enough, it already seems clear that the second may well have far greater and more lasting ramifications than the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That's because while 9/11 changed the way we view the world, the current financial crisis has changed the way the world views us. And it will also change, in some very fundamental ways, the way the world works.

DEAN BAKER
Did Paulson Mislead Bush on the Bailout? tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — According to the Washington Post, after the initial defeat of the bailout package in the House, President Bush asked Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson about "Plan B." Paulson told Bush "there is no Plan B." Of course this was not true.

MIKE ILLIS
The Golden Parachute Survives washingtonindependent.com — For supporters of the Bush administration’s $700-billion Wall Street bailout, it stands as a key selling point: a provision that limits pay packages for the heads of companies helped by the taxpayer-funded rescue program. There's just one problem: It would do little to cap executive pay or rein in the enormous retirement packages — the golden parachutes — that have come to symbolize corporate excess.

GARRISON KEILLOR
They're Steailing from You and Me — Where's the Outrage? alternet.org — It wasn't their money Wall Street was playing with. It was ours.