An important observation in the Guardian echoes what we have been saying elsewhere for months: this debt crisis was never just a problem of the European periphery. From the very beginning, an existential crisis for Western capitalism was lurking beneath the surface, presenting itself in the first instance as a sovereign debt crisis in the European periphery (just like the previous financial crisis of 2008 initially presented itself as a credit crunch in the US housing market).

But, as the Guardian observes, "when the crisis reached Rome, it finally became impossible for Europe's leaders to write off the turmoil in bond markets as a problem of the "periphery" - little Greece, Ireland and Portugal." And with markets tumbling across the world, it's becoming increasingly clear that the crisis wasn't just limited to Europe either. We have just entered the second installment of the global financial crisis. It's going to be an ugly weak.