Bill Joy wrote a controversial cover article for Wired magazine back in 2000 called "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us."  Although he was writing about the dangers posed by the technologies of genetics, nanotechnology and robotics, I can't help but think it also applies to the "technology" that spawned the current financial crisis.  Technologies that created these financial instruments that replicated themselves so thoroughly throughout the global economic system that no one realized the extent of its replication.  Bill writes:

"The 21st-century technologies - genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) - are so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses. Most dangerously, for the first time, these accidents and abuses are widely within the reach of individuals or small groups. They will not require large facilities or rare raw materials. Knowledge alone will enable the use of them."

By the way, I watched Bush's speech tonight and I think he supported my blog entry from a few days ago about AIG becoming too big to fail.  He said:

"Once this crisis is resolved, there will be time to update our financial regulatory structures. Our 21st-century global economy remains regulated largely by outdated 20th-century laws.  Recently, we've seen how one company can grow so large that its failure jeopardizes the entire financial system."

The inference being we can't allow that to happen again.  This may be the first time I agree with Bush.