I Thought It Was Warm In Florida???

37 degrees? What?!?! Yep, Saturday morning in Orlando and it's like being back home. Going to hit 70 today though. We just have to wait it out. In the meantime I'm having my coffee and cinammon roll while Debra snoozes. I'm an early riser... every single day. Sometimes it's annoying.

Well the markets only drifted down a little yesterday, but the S&P is now within 1% of it's closing low in November. In the meantime the Dow continues to hit new lows, now matching lows it hasn't seen in a dozen years.

Bank of America and Citigroup can be had for less than $3 a share. Unbelievable. Their market capitalization is now lower than the amount the gov't has "loaned" them. Some scary stuff here folks. Chances are they'll be nationalized (taken over) by the gov't. Ummm, if the best minds in finance can't handle them do you really trust our gov't to be able to? Any idea how huge, massive, gargantuan these companies are??? Well they've lost over 90% of their value and if nationalization occurs it'll be closer to 99.9%. Imagine having worked for one of them for 25 years and having a huge chunk of your retirement tied to them and being wiped out in a year. But it's happening everywhere as stock prices decline 50% from their peaks. And it may get worse before it gets better.

Wall Street has no confidence in what's trying to be done so there can't be any type of a turnaround yet. I think I'll avoid the falling knife for now. I'm hoping for one giant Oh Shit day or days that will capitulate this market so I'll know it's time to get back in. If it simply continues to drift down I won't know exactly when the time is to get back in.

What's next? I don't have a clue any longer. Every attempt by the gov't is being met with skepticism and even anger. Rick Santilli of CNBC went on a rampage when the mortgage idea was presented the other day. I can't say that I blame him. I don't want to pay for my neighbors house just because he bought something he shouldn't have. It's a vicious circle though. As more defaults and foreclosures occur puts more houses on the market which brings down home prices and values. Sure, I'm getting hit by it too but I can weather it since I don't plan on going anywhere soon. Although we do want to move to the coast and it will be very appealing if prices keep coming down... even though it means my house won't make me as much either. OK, I'm dizzy now.

Today is Sea World day. Once it warms up.