Wow!this has been quite a day on the market.
Heard that the taxpayer to foot the bill.
Are they serious?
Time is out of joint on Wall Street. The financial industry is stuck on fast-forward and moving into growing uncertainty about when the collapse of investment banks and decline in stock values will come to a stop. Sept. 14, 2008, is already being called "Black Sunday," but more black days could lie ahead.

On Sunday, Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old investment banking firm and Wall Street stalwart, slid toward bankruptcy and probable dissolution, after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson rightly refused a taxpayer-backed bailout like the one used to save Lehman rival Bear Stearns and the nation's biggest mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Taxpayers have risked enough, and further bailouts of financial institutions deemed "too big to fail" would lead to an even greater rise in irresponsible lending. Bear Stearns filed for protection yesterday.

The financial crisis that was described as the worst in a century by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is playing out in the waning days of the presidential election campaign. The best minds in the world have not shown that they understand how to restore the toppling house of cards that the financial markets have become, so humility on the part of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama is in order.

Many experts say the financial industry's downhill slide will stop only when housing prices begin climbing again. They don't, however, agree on when that will happen. Meanwhile, the nation and its consumers wait to see whether borrowing will become so difficult that America's consumer-driven economy will plunge into serious recession.

Lots of things are being blamed for the crisis. Lax regulation of the monumentally complex industry has been obvious for some time.

New and constantly evolving financial instruments separated loans from the borrowers' ability to pay and lenders who pass the loans along from risk as long as they kept the hot potato moving.

Lenders bundled loans together and buyers bought derivatives in a system akin to betting on whether the bundle, rather than any individual borrower, would pay the money back.

Homeowners gambled by borrowing against the meteorically rising values of their homes. Then values fell below what was owed on the properties. When debtors by the millions found that they couldn't or wouldn't pay, lenders lost vast sums of money.

McCain is assuring the nation that, as reformers, he and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can clean up the mess. In response, Obama is blaming McCain's support of the Bush administration's anti-regulatory zeal for the lack of financial industry oversight that contributed to the crisis. To his credit, Obama warned federal regulators more than a year ago that a major housing crisis was in the offing without changes and tougher regulations.

Both presidential candidates are now wearing the mantle of "Change." The question is, what change? Which candidate can do the best job of selecting from the many proposals that will be put forth in coming months and years to restore confidence in Wall Street, strike the proper balance between regulation and financial innovation, and restore the worsening economy?

Unfortunately, the financial dominos may not be done falling before voters have to make up their minds.