First it was Bear Stearns, then came Freddie and Fannie and now they are spending a whole weekend working out how to spend your hard earned money to save Lehman Brothers.

Bear Stearns looks really small by comparison - only $30 billion was poured in to save what was left of Bear Stearns, before JP Morgan Chase agreed to take it in for foster care. Freddie and Fannie - the two giant mortgage companies with $5 trillion in mortgages - that was at a whole different level. Those two companies were effectively nationalized - which means your tax money will gaurantee the mortgage securities that the two corporations floated. Who owns those mortgage securities? A mix of foreign governments, central banks and very trust funds and private equity funds owned by very very rich billionaries. Yes your hard earned money was whisked away to provide guarantees.

There are many moving parts in this slow economic mud slide:

1. Economic activity continues to slow down, as credit is practically unavailable for small businesses and individuals who are looking to grow and sustain small and micro businesses.

2. US economic slowdown is adversely impacting the rest of the world, especially Europe, China, Russia and India. Investors who had bought into globalization are fleeing those areas and heading back to the USA - hence you see the sharp rise of the US dollar.

3. Inflation will moderate over the next six months, especially as the oil prices head back dwon to $70-80 per barrel. Yes, there will be resistance to this price decrease, especially from those investors - led by Wall Street researchers from Goldman Sachs and other stalwarts - who egged very very rich investors to buy and hold oil inventories for future delivery. But the economic slow down will be relentless and oil prices will be down where they logically should be.

4. You will continue to be whip sawed by the joint shenanigans of Wall Street and the current administration working in cahoots to cheat, lie and steal using fancy terms of debt instruments, options, derivates and futures. At least until January 2009 - that is if a new administration with substantial back bone is voted in. Don't bet on it - the voters, ably steered by corporate media, have been distracted by the Palin spectacle. We may collectively vote, once again, to put people in the White House who will work with Wall Street to find even better ways to lie, cheat and steal from you.

We are reaping the harvest of letting financial robber barrons once again (yes it happened before in JP Morgan's times) rule the roost. After all, remember, US Treasury Secretary Paulson was Chairman of Goldman Sachs not too long ago. He is the one now engineering the Wall Street rescue!