I honestly find the whole situation too confusing to have any conviction about one way or the other. But to see Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers all basically get wiped out tells suggests that survival is now the number one priority.

Greed...it's an essential part of our system, but it sure does hurt when it goes to extremes.

I keep reading that a recession is a possibility, and hearing from people in the US that, for many, it has become a depression. I'm not a great economist but I could see it coming a year ago (in our sharemarket). The strings were drawn too tightly.

The new "bank run" will not be for cash, but to move, liquidate or shift stocks and mutual funds (including Corporate and State government pensions in these funds). Watch Wall Street tumble and toss this week in reaction to all this. It will be a "run on Wall Street" instead.