Who Finds Solace in Black Monday?

Few of us can take solace in this Black Monday -- Bear Stearns is history, Lehman Brothers has declared bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch is getting gobbled, and even the goliath AIG has watched its stock go from 70 to 7, as it looks to borrow billions to stay intact.

But those who sit at the top of the remaining major labels can perhaps find respite in these developments: for a few moments anyway, the music industry is no longer the poster child for the demise of a business model built on excess and greed. The investment bankers will remain on the hot seat as the credit crunch eats its victims.

But this is no time to be complacent. The relentless march of the credit crunch also reminds us that the market ultimately has no conscience: if there is no one to save the venerable investment banks and financial institutions who have greased the wheels of our economy for over 150 years, certainly no one will blink an eye when a music label or two -- or three or four -- bites the dust, or "restructures" into a shadow of its former self.