Financial Crisis Hits World Markets

Hunter said yesterday's market rout was the "market's reaction to something they were expecting to go through," referring to the Treasury Department's bailout plan.

"Markets hate being surprised," Hunter said, though he added that "they come to terms very quickly with their surprise."

While the bailout cycle may have started in March of this year with the U.S. government-sponsored sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase in March, the current crisis may have been a long time in the making and the dominos have been falling ever since.

The Federal Reserve made plans to inject $100 billion into both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Sept. 7. The U.S. government then announced on Sept. 16 an $85 billion emergency loan to insurance giant AIG in exchange for a nearly 80 percent stake in the company.

Ann Pettifor, executive director of Advocacy International, criticized the bailout plan in her Guardian op-ed, calling it an example of "Anglo-American finance ministers and central bankers, like little Dutch boys, try[ing] desperately to plug leaks in the bursting dyke that is the international financial system."

"Creating jobs and raising incomes as a share of GDP is vital if we want people to repay debts, salvage banks and return to the high street," Pettifor writes. If this doesn't happen, she paints a bleak picture, arguing that "If we fail to adopt such systemwide fixes, and if we persist with economic orthodoxy, then look forward to a prolonged period of global economic failure."

As for Hunter's analysis of the bailout plan, he believes that if an agreement can be reached in Washington depending on "how much money is involved," then the markets would be able to begin "regaining poise."