I sit here listening to CNBC and Bloomberg, reading blog posts and drinking cheap, rotgut coffee. The financial crisis gets worse with each hour. The Wall Street talking heads are frightened because nothing is being traded in earnest, as the big funds and investors just go on unloading and unweighting their depleted portfolios.

Meanwhile, Main Street is choking. There is no credit. Even giant McDonalds can't use their AAA-rated credit line to buy new coffee machine systems to replace their old ones. The banks won't extend their credit either.

Go out and try to buy something on credit - and I don't mean using your credit or debit card to buy lunch. I mean go out and try to buy a Prius today... and the chances are you won't be able to unless your credit score is above 720 and you make a giant down payment.

The money is choked off.

Washington Mutual, one of the nation's larger banks (crafted together during the 1991-1992 Savings and Loan crash) had over 16 billion of its investor's cash withdrawn since July. They sold for a price (stock) in the 40's not too long ago. Yesterday the stock price fell to around sixteen cents a share. The government (Fed) seized the bank and JP Morgan bought it out. Just a few weeks ago Washington Mutual turned down a buyout offer at four dollars a share!

There will be more.

Meanwhile, the political dealing continues in the nation's capital, to craft an agreement that will pass Congress. The White House/Treasury plan has been rejected by a large group of House Republican neo-cons. Quite astonishingly, the Democrat leadership is allied with the Bush/Paulson group in wanting to get the bailout plan passed. The President's own party is in revolt.

I actually feel sorry for Bush and his group. He's a lame duck with little support anymore. The Wall Street gang seem to just be waiting for something, anything, that will put confidence back into the markets and our failing financial system. The politics of division have interfered and it probably won't happen - at least too soon.

Compromise will be the key, but the neo-cons don't want compromise. The gloom is turning to doom.

What a scenario.

How will this affect you? It will hurt. It will jack up the cost of credit. It will destroy the Christmas retail season. It will diminish the national treasury. It will make your retirement funds look like you put all your money into Enron. It will raise prices. It will diminish the value of the dollar on the world market. It will turn the election into a fight about our future economic well-being. All because the people making these decisions have put their politics before the health of the country.

The country - and that's you, me and your grandchildren - must come first.

Call, write and email your representatives in D.C. and demand that they solve this quickly!