In a rare press conference yesterday President Bush tried to assure Americans that their banking system was “sound.”

Bush’s comments didn’t do much for investors confidence. Shares in troubled mortgage outfits Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tumbled, along with most other financial stocks.

The bottom line is the U.S. financial system is now beyond credibility, as James Howard Kunstler puts it. And Dubya and his Republican party will be remembered as the party that broke America.