basically it means in the long run that you'll still be on the hook for the banks giving out bad paper.

The markets would have corrected themselves in a few months.. but no they had to go out and wipe out the debt that banks and their stupid CEO's occured. Which means the banks will have to repay the government.. like that will ever happen.

For right now it frees up the credit market.. which means the banks will simply go back to doing what they were doing.

Dumb. Retarded. Just Plain Stupid.

You will never know. This is on the macro level.

The better question is: Will this make a difference? (To the macro level, that is.)

There is nothing here for those in the housing crisis.

I'm not sure you're right.

But I sure as hell am worried you are.

Seems to me like all this does is put everyone on the hook for a screw up by some.

there's no way to know.
this is mostly theater.
what it'll mean practically will have to wait until there's some practice to have a meaning.

So how about that volatility?

How long do you think it'll take before Monday's big rally gets evaporated?

So is the surge—I mean, bailout—working?

When stocks are way down you look for undervalued opportunities and buy low. A friend of mine bought a few thousand shares of GM stocks last week for just over $4.50/share and sold some early today for well over $7/share; he's an optimist so he's holding the rest more long term...believeing that in a few years it will be worth multiples of the purchase price.

I'm seeing quite a few similar tempting opportunities.

sure there are plenty of opportunities to buy in the market now, but you still have to do your homework. you can't just jump on every small price tag you find.

The bailout isn't really working yet. What I see is the fact that global leaders in the economic world are stepping up and trying to calm fears. People aren't as worried so naturally the market shifts back into the upward trend. It will swing back down again (although, probably not as hard) and it will regain after a short period. In all honesty I see this thing being a thing of the past in about 9 months. Yes.. I think it will take that long or maybe even longer before we see any real market stability.

Bear in mind that, even if bailout works, trouble in banks over the last months must have done some damage to the economy (because of lack of money). I believe at least one quarter of recession is due, maybe more. Plus, the bailout money still needs to work its way to all the businesses that need it, and during that time more dismal forecasts will be published, and some companies will without a doubt post bad financial reports for the 3rd quarter. All in all, more shocks and downturns will occur in the stock market, before prices finally stabilize.

All that if the bailout works. If it doesn’t – may God have mercy on our souls :)

Of course, that’s all IMHO.

Bonds look good value. How about one issued by the World Bank yielding 12% (at time of writing). Hard to see the World Bank defaulting? or is it?

Downside is it only has 1 month life.