I know that all news tends to be subjective and biased (just look at the difference between US CNN reports and those on CNN International) but I am curious why instead of providing objective reporting to make such an effort to put a negative tilt on every market story. It seems strange. Is there a reason?

Of course you are right. The economies of the United States, Europe and most of the Western World are sick and getting sicker. Real productivity has moved to the Orient and India. If we can see inflation as a serious problem the central bankers can't be that much dumber than we are. Their problem is that if they turn off the monetary printing presses they fear that unemployment, which is the real issue in economic slowdowns, will rise sharply. This is clearly politically unacceptable. What it would really do is increase unemployment in China and India as demand for the products they produce falls. Governments fail to understand the implications of service based economies. They forget that there are more people employed flipping burgers than making things like cars and toasters in the Western World.

What we need is real money with real backing and the inherent control this sort of thing would bring. We could still use Friedman monetary economics based on a fractional reserve system, but with the backing of commodities or other things of value behind money. We could then use the fiat money for what it is good for, starting the bar-b-que.

Please don't worry. Ben the powerful will continue to increase the money supply and this will in time cure everything. As the value of the dollar approaches zero all the problems in the credit sector will be fixed. Houses that are now worth $100,000 and falling will be worth a million or more. Of course, hamburger will be $10,000 a kilo, but the United State will even be able to pay off its international debt. The wonderful thing about fiat money is you can inflate your way out of almost any problem. Of course the Weimar Republic lead to the rise of Adolph Hitler to power, and that worked didn't it–well almost.

I hope my positive outlook has made you feel better. With Fed leadership like Bubbles Greenspan and now bingeing Ben there is little to fear.

For those amateur investors like me, money is made when people buy low. To reiterate, I don't know the bottom, but we are in bear territory and have some to go I am sure. Automatic investments seem to work in periods like this.

It is the perfect storm but the U.S. brought it upon itself.

We forgot about saving for a rainy day, frugality, paying for what we buy without charging it. If we would teach our kids the values of Benjamin Franklin we would all be a lot better off.

We have a long haul ahead of us. If we had the right leadership in DC it would help a lot. We need to rebuild our infrastructure including mag lev trains, bridges, roads, and the electrical grid.

We need to go on a domestic war footing and pull together to dig our way out of this disaster. We can provide jobs for anyone who wants to work if we stop bickering in Congress and work together for the common good. This may be our last chance to get it right unless we want to let the slide toward second world status continue.

Capitalism is supposed to reward intelligence and prudence, not a bunch of gamblers who can't take it on the chin and admit they screwed up.

A slew of shrill investment management talking heads are covering for profit-takers with noise about hurricanes, wars, China, etc, to help keep small investors in the market and losing money, as long as possible.

I expect that prices we will bet down to the $97 to $107.00 range with 3 weeks. Unfortunately, average consumers are about to get another shock when they are told that thousands of their pension dollars were invested in oil-indexed securities, and lost to the early sellers that are now talking prices up.

But, on the bright side consumers can begin saving a modest retail price decline of 25-30 cents per gallon in a few weeks.