I see and hear worry everywhere. The stock market is nosediving and is back under 10900 on the DJIA. The S&P will probably drop under 1200 today or tomorrow. GM announced it is ceasing its dividend and making more drastic cuts in output, models and laying off a bunch.

IndyMac Bank in California went under. The fed took them over and reopened the bank yesterday, but the run on that bank continued. People lined up all day to withdraw their assets, and only a trickle got through the doors to do that. More banks are in trouble because of their overexposure to mortgages in a market of falling home prices.

You should never deposit more than 100,000 in any single bank. That is the maximum the FDIC will insure an account for. Anything above that usually means you will only get cents on the dollar. I know a guy out there who inherited two million bucks. He spread it over twenty banks, and whenever any account went above a hundred grand, he took out some of the money and spent it.

Smart strategy. I wonder if he had some scoots in IndyMac Bank.

My own bank is in trouble. I won't mention its name because I don't want to start a run on it. But they were caught holding lots of bad mortgage paper when the real estate market went in the toilet. They had to get seven billion from private investors, which, of course, watered down their stock's value.

Besides, I don't have that much in my bank. Right now, approaching the middle of the month, I keep checking to make sure I still have anything in my account (to avoid the damn thirty dollar NSF charge!)

There is no need to panic unless you
!. own a company's share,
2. have more than a hundred grand in one bank,
3. work for General Motors
4. or are a Republican running for re-election.

Almost forgot to mention the wholesale inflation report. It came in at 1.8 percent. Multiply that month's figure by twelve and the annual rate would be getting close to twenty percent.