Revisiting Alex Hamilton, Bretton Woods

Here is an interesting take on the redistribution of economic power - is a meeting of just the G-7 industrialized nations enough to find a solution to the financial crisis? At this juncture, and certainly down the road, the G-20 (which includes Australia, Saudi Arabia, and some developing but nevertheless powerful nations such as China and India) will play a significant and imperative role in resolving financial crises.

Also, here's an interesting (if superficial) article on one woman's effort to move her bank savings from a large bank, Wachovia, to a smaller community bank that has been operating since before the American Civil War. Could we be returning to those 19th century days when Americans didn't trust centralized financial authorities (i.e. a national bank) or large banks (sorry Alex Hamilton)? After the Riegle-Neal Act, we became accustomed to widespread bank mergers, and the current economic crisis has accelerated them. Our assets increasingly were held under large entities. But the backlash could be a return to depositors preferring their local banks, where they can get to know the management and have a better sense of what's in those community banks' loan portfolios - thus great security for their assets.