[RawAlex]

IMHO, when history is written, the entire financial crisis will be expressed as a very well coordinated attack by oil producing nations, who encouraged a massive runup in oil prices that crippled the US, and started a cascade of financial issues as American's stopped being able to afford their lifestyles. They matched it almost to the day to run into the low interest loan problems, and did more damage to the US than could ever be expected (sort of like Al Qaida people being a little surprised by how much damage was done with a couple of airplanes).

The problem is it was too effective, and now it is turning around and biting them in the ass big time, as the price of oil drops rapidly and is going to leave some of these dictator types in serious trouble (Chavez is really on the edge already).

Did anyone know that Iran (massive oil producer) imports almost all of it's gas, and routinely has massive gas shortages? Imagine how things do when the price of their oil drops too quickly... tee-hee.