Scary quotes

I've been scanning econ-comments recently. "We're all going to die" comments are a dime-a-dozen amongst the gold-loving Ron Paul fractional banking haters that have been around for years, so they don't really matter since the elephant powder is obviously working its charm.

But what is really interesting are these quotes:

I don't get angry about economics related things often, but I am right now (I could not have posted what I was really thinking). Congress needed to get something done. This is completely disfunctional. Disgusting. This shows no regard for people who might lose their jobs over this. I know a lot of you think we can get through this - you are nuts to take that chance, this is extraordinarily dangerous - why do you think all the economists are so scared, the ones you've trusted in the past, the vast majority are willing to say "hold your nose" but please, please vote yes (even Galbraith, Baker, Krugman, all of them).

- Mark Thoma, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University Of Oregon

So what we now have is non-functional government in the face of a major crisis, because Congress includes a quorum of crazies and nobody trusts the White House an inch.

As a friend said last night, we’ve become a banana republic with nukes.

- Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

And if this run accelerates - as it may now - a total meltdown of the US financial system could occur. We are thus now in a generalized panic mode and back to the risk of a systemic meltdown of the entire financial system. And US and foreign policy authorities seem to be clueless about what needs to be done next.

- Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics and International Business, New York University.

Experts in any field are usually judicious and careful in their pronouncements. But even a seasoned vulcanologist with PhDs coming out of his ears will still be running through the street shouting warnings as the Volcano erupts nearby.

In short - even my judiciousness over the past 2-3 years appears misplaced in the light of these alarming comments by financial experts. They say run. We'd better run.