STARK FEAR

President Bush stepped up to the plate again today staring at the increasing potential of utter collapse in the credit markets and pretty much punted-- Telling the markets there is enough liquidity(even the incessantly devalued kind, such as the weakening Dollar) in the system to facilitate the soft landing everyone seeks but fewer and fewer favor faith enough to really count on-- This here's Texas and down here we're on your own--

The shrunken president mustered enough faux confidence to inject a mite of minor calm into the market's hysterical volatility and feed a less than reassuring soundbite to the breathless media as the air of disconnect clearly added to the unreality surrounding the stark fear motivating investors-- Enough liquidity??-- You don't suppose he ran that by Wall Street's resident idiot-savant Jim Cramer, do you??-- Never mind the other reports of European Central Banks, in real fear of a potential cash crunch, peeling 94.8 billion euros ($130 billion) off the top of their stash for an immediate loan out to the evermore nervous banks--

Right out of the morning chute the Dow ran south to a negative 240, swam against the choppy current all day before being crushed into the cold sand in the final hour finishing 400 points to the downside-- All 18 markets across Wester Europe joined the rout-- All 10 industry components of the S&P 500 fell more than 2% today-- On the NYSE volume reached nearly 3billion shares, the most in over five years-- Swiftly moving conjecture about the litany of more banks and brokerage houses preparing to come clean over the declining real value of credit investments lit the unsheathed nerve of Wall Street like a welder's rod and cover-seeking prospectors dumped all over the brokerage/bank-stocks--

Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan, GoldmanSachs, MorganStanley,Merrill, Lehman, most all fell in the vicinity of 5% or more and finely searched annals unveiled nary a worse day in nearly five years for many- Multiple observers were clearly reticent but ultimately compelled to describe the action as panic, not quite yet full-fledged as in..... PANIC!!!-- Retreat should be orderly and dignified if not a strategic affectation, but try explaining that to exposed Euro bankers caught by their knickers in the sub-prime vise while grasping madly for T-bills and suddenly risk averse security-- Is it too late for America to alter its over-extended life style??-- In Europe or down here in Texas reaping the whirlwind sure ain't gonna be no piece of cake!!--