The fear is that this might lead to higher inflation, and that the government's demand for funds will push up interest rates, crowd out private investment, weaken the financial system and leave the economy vulnerable if hit by a big macroeconomic shock.

ECONOMIST: Too little investment; too big a deficit; too few jobs

And while the inescapable and obvious result is that increased financial pressure is placed on the private health insurance system at the expense of removing some of the financial pressure on the government run Medicare system, what may not be quite so obvious is the additional financial pressure placed on even the youngest and healthiest people in the private health insurance pools.

FORBES: Raising The Medicare Age May Be Good GOP Politics, But Single-Payer Is The Better Solution For All Americans

What happens to private equity may be a leading indicator of how the crisis in the financial system will affect the rest of the business world, both because private-equity deals are so dependent on large amounts of debt, and because many of the shrewdest judges of corporate value work for private-equity funds.

ECONOMIST: Business and the credit crunch

Above all, the private firms at the heart of the financial system may have become too risk-averse to respond to rate-cut promptings.

ECONOMIST: First the put; then the cut?

Even if it could be agreed, I'm not sure that a bank levy to extract 30bn euros from the financial system, in the name of "private sector burden-sharing", really fits that description.

BBC: A fork in the road for the euro?

Nigeria could funnel its oil revenues into a more efficient financial system that could provide capital to the private sector to build roads and power stations and expand private enterprises, such as farming.

ECONOMIST: Nigeria's prospects

They are a walking, talking, screaming moral hazard that's been in the American financial system for 70 years because they are exactly what I described - a private company that gets the benefit of any risks, but the government, for 70 years, has told the world - like you said, with a wink and a nudge - we're going to take care of them if anything bad happens.

NPR: Wall Street Woes: Who Gets A Bailout?

At the Center for Financial Stability, we specifically measure the banking system and broader money supplyexisting in the private sector.

FORBES: Bernanke Still Pouring Shots Of QE To Markets Already Drunk On Liquidity

"The Greek financial system is in trouble and it's very difficult to raise this kind of money in the private sector, " the fund spokesman told CNN.

CNN: Could derelict airport be Greece's economic savior?