Well, the press (or, at least, The Los Angeles Times) is finally catching up with the public:

For a generation, most people accepted the idea that the core of what makes America tick was an economy governed by free markets. And whatever combination of goods, services and jobs the market cooked up was presumed to be fine for the nation and for its citizens — certainly better than government meddling.

No longer.

Spurred by the continued housing crisis, turmoil in financial markets, spiking oil prices, disappearing jobs and shrinking retirement savings, the nation and its political leaders have begun to sour on the notion that the current market system is the key to a fair, stable and efficient society.

   And…

In just the last week, the financial markets have provided ample new evidence that markets are not working smoothly.

Washington had to ride to the rescue of two government-chartered mortgage giants — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which hold or guarantee nearly half of the nation’s $12 trillion in mortgage debt — after investors all but extinguished the pair’s market value amid fears that falling home prices would push them into insolvency.

Meanwhile, federal regulators seized IndyMac Bancorp, a $32-billion mortgage lender based in Pasadena, in what regulators called the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. And the already battered stock market took another sharp dip.

   Actually, the "markets" have not worked "smoothly" for a long time for a lot of people: 47 million people with no health care is not a market working well for people (though it does quite nicely for insurance companies, thank you); real pensions disappearing over the past two decades, replaced by 401(k)s that are now 201(k)s is not a market working smoothly (unless, of course, you are the bankers and traders who make money no matter what happens to real people); wages going virtually nowhere is not a market working smoothly (unless you are a CEO); and so-called "free trade" is not a market working smoothly because it’s actually a lie…there is no such thing (but it does work quite nicely for the corporations needing to protect investment and capital and find rock-bottom wages).

   But, it’s nice that the traditional media is finally getting a clue.