As we fall deeper into the "abyss"...

We all hoped that the signing of the Paulson Plan on Friday would bring some calm and mild confidence back to the global markets today. But as The Telegraph proclaims, we appear to be free falling into an "abyss". While the article's focus on monetary policy (as accelerating the crisis) is, in my opinion, missing the point (I have long said, however, that Greenspan's Fed created this mess more than any single actor), it does reiterate something I briefly touched upon a few days back: the staggering lack of coordination between governments has been a decisive factor in the contagion spreading across the globe.

Europe and Asia are rapidly catching up to the US (it was thought just a few months back that these two regions were well placed to weather the storm). Emerging markets are losing capital fast, and Russian authorities have resorted to simply shutting down the market every other day to stem losses.

All the while, a common, global strategy has been missing (with the exception of central bank liquidity injections). We urgently need a Bretton-Woods style conference to produce a massive, coordinated response to this crisis. The international financial and economic architecture must be reconfigured in line with 21st century markets and power, and the current crisis has highlighted the urgency with which this must be addressed. Europe's lack of coordination is proving more disastrous by the minute. Let us stop the global deterioration now.