Hmm. I remember reading about this years ago, and the author used terms like "powder keg" and "catastrophic".

How big an effect will this selloff have on our economy. Could we be headed for an economic war? I few more moves like this coupled with a true disruption to oil supply could send our economy into a tailspin.

Fed Chairman Bernanke commented that the slumping housing market remains a drag on the US economy. It will be interesting to see where this ends up.

There are so many worldwide unregulated hedge funds trading in collatorized debt obligations (groups of subprime mortgages and other types of loans) it's a tad bit worrisome.

However I don't characterize this as a political move just wise management to find some other type of less risky investment. However, it does show you what could happen if someone who controls a lot of debt and whose name sounds like Shina wanted to flood the market to punish someone.