1.2 trillion in market value wiped out in one day...

We are living in historic times, though I wish I would be writing that for different reasons.

Today's events were extraordinary, capping off weeks of financial meltdown that finally came to a head with a 700bn dollar bailout plan failing to pass in the Congress- this after the President, no less, urged his own party to back it- only one-third did and the plan is now on hold as the politicians take a "well deserved" Jewish holiday break!

I dont think Washington realizes that 1.2 trillion dollars in market value was wiped out today, I dont think any of them get it. As I walked down Tryon Street, there was a pall of gloom across the street in Wachovia, a perfectly sound and stable bank that got sold for less than a dollar a share. A lot of people have their retirements in stock, they have their long term savings in stock and to see all that disappear is shocking. To put it simply, credit is the oil that lubricates the economy and for it to come to a grinding halt, as it almost did today, will be catastrophic for everyone, not just those on Wall Street.

A lot of people are confused about how we got here. Three easy steps- first- "selling" mortgages to those who can't afford it, second- securities getting "sold" in the hope that house prices would go up and so their value getting inflated beyond their true worth, and third- as the housing prices don't go up, the inherent value of the securities comes into question, which tightens the entire credit situation up as no one is really confident about the actual worth of the security. Crystal clear!

This has been a sad day- for investors and the common man. It has been a despicable day for politicians- their unbridled greed, unprincipled partisanship and incorrigible incompetence is something that galls me no end!