Ken Ohmae, former head of McKinsey’s Tokyo office (disclosure: I have a passing acquaintence with him and he was enormously well regarded in his day despite being a tireless self-promoter) says that the Paulson program is grossly inadequate and the magnitude of the US crisis is so large that a $5 trillion international facility is necessary.

The quid pro quo of any international program is that the US would be put on a short leash, probably not as severe as the one to which Indonesia and Thailand were subject to in the Asian crisis. But the US is not good at austerity and has never been in the position of not being in the driver’s seat, so this sort of initiative would no doubt be rejected until it is too late for it to have much impact.

From Bloomberg (hat tip reader Saboor):