October 2008

They did it again. The FDIC closed down two banks on Friday night after the market had closed. The two bans in question are Meridian Bank of Eldred, Illinois and Main Street Bank of Northville, Michigan. As always seems the case for the…

Tom Toles is absolutely terrific. He captures the mood of the day so well in his cartoons, that it really puts paid to the aphorism that a picture is worth a thousand words.SourceTom Toles Cartoons, Washington Post

Look, the markets were really ugly this week. But, at a minimum, we avoided the worst on Friday. In the end, we can live in a constant reality of fear and loathing.... or we can escape and relax. Everybody needs a little escape now and…

SourceDow Jones Chart - Yahoo! Finance

Jeremy Grantham has seen this crash coming for quite some time. Nevertheless, he is not selling everything and waiting out the market in Kruggerrands and cash. has kept a good long-term perspective about investing that bears repeating here.…

I caught this photo via the Wall Street Journal's blog Market Beat by David Gaffen. This sell-off now ranks as one of the three worst in the last 100 hundred years.Very sobering.

This comes via Credit Fixings. The auction process to settle Credit Default Swap trades on Lehman Brothers bonds put the value of the debt at 9.75 cents on the dollar. That is much lower than one would have expected (12 cents on the…

It is usually said that capitulation is reached and the markets can go higher only when everyone has thrown in the towel. Are we there yet? I don't think so. However, would suggest you head over to the Guardian website and vote…

Things have not calmed down yet and the Futures market is pointing to a very poor start to morning trading. We are looking at a minimum of 4% down right of the bat.If the Plunge Protection Team exists, now is your time to…

It is 8:15 AM ET and this is what I see in the markets today as we await the opening in New York:EuropeThe U.K FTSE 100 down 7.5%The German DAX down 9%The CAC-40 in Paris down over 8%AsiaJapan's Nikkei down nearly 10%The Hang Seng in Hong…