September 10, 2007 (LPAC)--The three traditionally "prestigious" international bankers' meetings last week-Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Cernobbio, Italy; and Buergenstock, Switzerland - left the unmistakable impression that the fools that run the banking system have lost control.

A paper prepared for the Jackson Hole meeting of central bankers by Federal Reserve Board member Feredic Mishkin goes through "simulation" scenarios of a 20-percent collapse of the US mortgage market, admitting on the one hand that this would "be very large by U.S. standards" but pretending on the other hand that the correction would be slow enough to allow the Fed to cut prime rates by 1.75 percent over a period of a year or so to ease market conditions (arrange the bail-out, that is). The paper is available at the Fed.

At the Cernobbio conference in Italy, a participant told EIR News Service today: "They played as if they were not worried" showing the attitude of "fasten your seat belts and trust us", but their answers or proposals were limited to very tiny things, without really facing the big problem.

And at the Buergenstock conference in Switzerland, a panel on Sept. 7, under the theme, "20 years after the crash of 1987 - could it happen again, or maybe even worse?" could not avoid pointing out many semblances to the current crisis. Concerns from among the audience that it could happen again, could not be calmed down by the panelists, the weekend edition of Neue Zuercher Zeitung noted.