KEY POINTS:
From the point of view of the average American taxpayer the big bailout has all the charm of a mafia shakedown.
Henry Paulson takes the role of sinister go-between, a shaven headed Joe Pesci if you like:
"So guys, I'm real sorry about all the damage that Fannie, Freddie and those Lehman Brothers did to your economy. But, ah, the Wall St crew want US$700 billion ($1 trillion) in unmarked bills by the end of the week or they'll be back to finish the job ... capice."
Only the US public are no easy mark.
Their politicians have this week turned the financial crisis into one of those historic showdowns that the Americans do so well.
While nobody is going to get nuked, the world's economies will undoubtedly quake if a deal is not reached.
Countries like New Zealand - which today had its recessionary status confirmed - will face a much harder and longer road back to growth.
The stakes are high for all of us.
Congress is made up of hard-nosed politicians who answer to constituents in small town USA. Those voters now have little or no sympathy for what they perceive as the decadent world of Wall St.
Never mind the massive wealth that the markets have created for America over the past 100 years. Never mind the fact that a vast number of the investors for whom those bankers act are Mum and Dad shareholders looking for the icing on the top of their retirement savings.
Right now investment bankers are America's public enemy number one.
No one on either side of the American political spectrum wants to be seen giving them an inch.
That's fine. It's an understandable position given the scale of excess that has been witnessed and the scale of the failures that followed it.
But from this end of the world the US public's stubbornness over the bailout looks dangerous.
The big question for Congress is: which would destroy more wealth? The extraction of some 6 per cent of US GDP to buy up all the bad debt that the bankers have created or the complete meltdown of the markets.
Financial markets are ruled by sentiment and confidence.
There is nothing worse than telling a troubled market that it's all going to be all right - and then finding out it isn't. And almost all the experts agree, no bail out would be worse.
Both scenarios may still see the US headed for recession. Neither will ensure an end to the credit crunch.
But for those of us in peripheral markets like New Zealand there is absolutely no upside to the break down of talks.
In short, negotiations are as heavy as they get without the prospect of war being on the table.
Just like the Cuban missile crisis, when Kennedy and Khrushchev took the world to the brink of a far more catastrophic conclusion, we must watch on and hope like hell our American allies make the right calls in the right time frame.
Liam Dann is the Herald's business editor.
