I am a financial layman with no comprehension of the particularities of the derivative markets but I have maintained attention to the global context of this financial meltdown. So tell me where I have this wrong. The conversations we are having now about AIG, bailouts, Cramer vrs Stewart and the G-20 summit are all circling around one subject; who is going to be taking the final big losses when we hit bottom? Bondholders? Stockholders? Taxpayers? In which country? In what proportion? Are the recent global market rallies in anticipation of a verdict for bondholders and stockholders and against taxpayers? Is this all coming to a head at the G-20?

To that possibly volitile mix I will add one other point of context.

We are in a transition from an era of cheap energy to an era of expensive energy. One way to understand current market volatility is the revaluation of all global assets in light of the changing variables of energy inputs. Our infrastructure is based on cheap energy and the length of the recession may depend on the effective use of stimulus globally to build new infrastructure based on expensive energy.

The changing costs of energy and the internalizing of formerly external costs of energy usage also changes the calculation of possible future economic growth. Or, to put it another way, we need the market to redefine growth as efficiency. We need real competitive functioning markets in order to squeeze every possible efficiency out of all the energy we can produce. Not to produce economic growth but to survive.