Global Markets: Reality Check, Again #3

We are not talking about an earnings dip, the economy entering recession, time frame for inventories to clear, and so forth.  We are talking about survival of the financial system...we are talking about the rules of the game, changes to those rules while the game is in progress.

The country will be there after the mess is cleared, we will be there.  There will be banks and industry and government.  Unfortunately, we don't know their names yet...such is the uncertainty and it is reflected in the highest continuous volatility of financial markets in recorded history.

Stay grounded in reality when you choose to take a risk...here is a potpurri of articles which ought to shake even someone on a double doze of prozac.

Crooked Bank, Nitwit Bank, Bad Bank.....What to do about Banks like Citi?

"(One approach) is that, when a bank suspends payment, it would simplify matters to hang (or, in any case, to jail) all its officers and directors at once, whether its suspension be due to its roguery, to their stupidity, or only to their bad luck."

I think public trading should be suspended in the shares of any enterprise seeking bailout money

State of New Jersey is Insolvent

Western Financial System we knew has collapsed

If I may paraphrase that great ensemble of Nobel-prize winning financial wizards, Monty Python’s Flying Circus:

“This financial system is no more! It has ceased to be! ‘It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! ‘It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘it to the tax payer’s perch it’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Its metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘It’s off the twig! It’s kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir indivisible!! THIS IS AN EX-FINANCIAL SYSTEM!!”

There are hundreds of articles now...the humour helps.