http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/20/AR2008022002270
.html

It doesn't look like an old-fashioned bank run because it involves the biggest
financial institutions trading paper assets so complicated that even top
executives don't fully understand the transactions. But that's what it is -- a
spreading fear among financial institutions that their brethren can't be
trusted to honor their obligations.

Do you want to know who is bailing out America's biggest banks and financial
institutions from the consequences of their folly -- by acting as the lender
of last resort and controller of the system? Why, it's the sovereign wealth
funds, owned by such nations as China and the Persian Gulf oil producers. The
new titans are coming to the rescue, if that's the right word for their
mortgage on America's future.