THIS:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/diamond-and-kashyap-on-the-recent-financial-upheavals/?em is a fairly clear analysis of the last 10 days. It's also a quick read; I recommend it.
I'd also like to recapitulate a comment left by one of the reader's below the article itself; Why not just borrow from the Pentagon? A week's worth of Iraqi War spending should provide sufficient capital to dig [the relevant companies] out of this muck.
::crosses fingers and hopes for best::