Wow!

Today was no day for a daydream. The Dow managed to recover from most of the day's losses, but what do we call it when the recovery was the result of the Fed pumping in $38 billion; its biggest bailout since the 2001 terrorist attacks, joining central banks in Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada in attempt to avoid the dreaded credit crunch? Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but calling it a recovery is only slightly less honest as seeing a sign of strength in the turning on of the Titanic's bilge pumps.

The housing market will probably show the first annual decline since the great Depression Some are sanguine about Bernanke's ability to deal with it - others are not, but if your ship is half full of water or half empty, maybe it isn't time to worry about optimism or pessimism, but time to look for the lifeboats.