one more: financial systems as ecosystems
from here
The bailout of the global financial giants is likely to fail. Appropriately, an environmental metaphor best describes the difficulty of saving the global financial giants. They are best thought of as the sharks at the top of a food chain. Their size grew rapidly as deregulation allowed them to gorge themselves, but now they are losing their food sources. The Federal government’s actions are analogous to providing chunks of meat to keep them alive. Unfortunately, the true problem is that the plankton at the bottom of the food chain is dying through bankruptcy and foreclosure. The risible stimulus package does nothing to prevent these deaths. Paulson, Bernanke, and Democratic congress have the sharks on life support, but the supply of meat is not infinite - and neither they nor the Presidential candidates appear to have clue as to what is happening.