Grasping 'Radical' Economic Change

After seven consecutive days of stock market declines in the United States, and cascading losses in other major markets around the world, many analysts said the financial crisis of 2008 had devolved into a full-fledged panic. David M. Rubenstein, the cofounder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, a leading private equity firm, discusses what must be done to mitigate the fear he says has "overtaken everything." Rubenstein, who sits on CFR's board of directors, says the present stock declines and credit crunch "are just the tip of the iceberg." He envisions a broad overhaul of the financial economic motors that had driven the global economy in recent decades and says major coordination between business and government leaders in the United States-and between the United States and other countries-will be necessary to... [read full story]