Wall Street plummets

The US House of Representatives rejects the latest bailout offer, and the Dow Jones goes into freefall.

When assigning blame to the US Congress or the President for this problem, keep in mind that the same thing is happening in other countries as well. The UK's solution is to outright nationalize their failing banks. While I detest nationalization, this may be better than simply loaning money to banks that already failed, as was the proposed plan in the US. I predict we will end up with that plan, but a slightly more watered down version than was rejected yesterday.

Meanwhile, what to do? In the classic film It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Potter gets control of the bank and much of the town by buying up shares while everyone else is desperately selling. In trying to persuade folks from not selling their shares to Potter in the Building & Loan, George Bailey said: "we're panicking and he's not".

Some free advice: right now is a very good time to buy, buy, buy!