Der Spiegel just published an excellent essay by Dirk Kurbjuweit, named “Dignity and Democracy, Escaping the Clutches of the Financial Markets“,

This is what is so disturbing about the current situation: the fact that politicians seem so helpless and powerless. They have been given a new master, and it’s not us, the people, who tend to intervene in milder ways. Rather, it’s the ruthless financial markets. The markets drive politicians even further into anxiety, weakness, incapacity and lies. Those who govern us are now being governed by the banks. That’s the situation.

You can read the entire essay here.