The government seized Washington Mutual (WM) and sold a portion of it (the profitable portion) to JP Morgan Chase (JPM) for $1.9 Billion. Folks, the bank has $900 Billion in customer deposits and $310 Billion in assets. This is the largest US bank collapse... so far. JPM stated that WM's liabilities and equities are worthless. I suspect the WM's shareholders will sue.

It was as of the opening bell trading at $0.164. Well that's a loss for me. Thankfully, my exposure was small. It also appears that trading was halted on WM as the ticker has stopped and all trade requests were canceled.

On top of all of this the Republican Party isn't willing to fix the problem. They want the Democrats to do the tough (non-populist) thing alone and pass some form of the $700 Billion fund. If the Dems alone did that the Republicans would then say the Dems are taxing and spending again. They did this in the early 90's and gained control of Congress. This time the Dems are staring back. I'll bet the farm the Republicans blink. They'll have to or the whole house of cards will collapse and the blame will be at their feet. If they are too dumb to blink... I expect a global meltdown.

We all remember what happened when the Republicans did nothing in the face of economic collapse in the 20's. Adolph Hitler came to power. Putin could use a collapse in the US and subsequently the world as the catalyst to exert Russia's military strength and grab resources at will.

I know, I know. This is all wild conjecture. But those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it.