[fabsroman]

Wrenchman is definitely right. Not only are US banks failing, but it appears that European banks are also failing.

If the US suffers a recession and its citizens stop spending money like crazy, who is going to buy all of China's, Thailand's, Korea's, and Vietnam's goods? Trust me, they are plenty worried in those countries.

Oh yeah, then there are all the foreign investors that bought these stupid mortgages from the banks. You can bet they are worried.

The other countries are so worried about this becoming a global crash, that they are pushing the US for this bailout. So I ask, why aren't the other countries putting money into this bailout since it will affect the global economy and not just the US economy if the US economy goes into recession. The other countries have no problem buying US company stock, US real estate, and US mortgages when they can make a buck, but when things turn for the worse, they want to US government and US taxpayers to foot the bill on something they had a hand in doing (i.e., banks might have thought twice about lending if they didn't have buyers willing to buy these securitized mortgages).

This isn't the end of the world, but maybe it will have people thinking about things. For instance, spend less and save more. Diversify your portfolio as you near retirement age so that you aren't in extremely risky investments. There is plenty to add to the list.