With every passing week, we continue to see remarkable events unfold in the financial markets. This week we saw the government unveil another bailout plan. This latest bailout - $540 billion - is for the nation's money market funds, which have seen investors flee them in droves. These funds were once considered to be ultra-safe investments by most investors.

The other remarkable event this week happened in Argentina. The government there is in such dire straits that they have nationalized the entire private pension system! In a related matter - some members of the US Congress have discussed taxing the value of private pensions plans - IRAs, 401ks, etc.- here in the US, whether you make a withdrawal or not.

The one piece of good economic news is that the credit markets have begun to thaw and credit is flowing again, albeit slowly. The bad news is that the stock market continues to sink. Why?

HEDGE FUNDS GONE WILD

Part of the reason for the selling is the same. Highly leveraged hedge funds, which I discussed in prior articles, continue to liquidate assets at any price they can in an effort to stay in business.

I must admit that I had under-estimated the amount of leverage these greedy Wall Street morons had been using. There is fear in global stock markets that even governments may not have enough money to repair the damage these idiots have caused.

As fast as governments pour money into the global financial system, money is being destroyed and lost forever in the highly speculative losing bets these idiots made.

Think of it this way - there is a bathtub with holes in the bottom. The holes are the stupid bets Wall Street made. The government is pouring water(money) into the tub as fast as they can, but water continues to leak out the bottom. The question is can the government pour in water fast enough to fill up the tub and gave the repair man enough time to plug the holes. Let's hope so!

STRONG US DOLLAR IS BAD NEWS

Another reason the stock market continues to drop is the unbelieveable strength of the US dollar over the past several months. Many in the media applaud the strength of the dollar as a sign of US strength.

They are wrong. The strength of the US dollar is just another government bailout of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.

Wall Street needed bailed out again as they had made huge bets over the past several years that the US dollar would rise. Over the past few years, the US dollar had done nothing but drop. What a stupid bet Wall Street made - thinking that the US economy would grow more rapidly than China, Brazil,etc. What colossal arrogance!

So the Federal Reserve, Treasury Dept., etc. have been doing everything they can to push the US dollar up. The results of this policy have begun to come home to roost.

As I discussed in a previous newsletter, they have succeeded in kicking out what was the only remaining leg that the US economy was standing on - strong US exports. In the past few weeks, a multitude of blue-chip, multinational US companies have said the strong US dollar is making them uncompetitive.

The list includes names such as Pepsi, Boeing, Intel, Caterpillar, and many more. This list also extends to hundreds of other smaller companies. Many layoffs from the affected companies already have been announced. Look for sharp rises in unemployment in the upcoming months.

Wall Street is of course smiling since they are re-couping the huge losses they had incurred. For once, I would like to see Washington side with Main Street instead of the Wall Street fatcats.