BSC, survived the great depression, now gone. The government came in to help.

FNM and FRE, the backbone of our troubled housing and mortgage system, shareholders incinerated. The same government is moving in to help.

IndyMac, gone. CFC, gone (absorbed).

FDIC list of banks in danger grew 20% last month. The more money the government uses on bailouts, the more companies are lining up for theirs.

Banks are selling off whatever they can to raise cash. While LEH was negotiating a sale with a Korean group, one of the commodity funds they were heavily invested in went belly up. The Koreans walked away.

In spite of all the government help, the Dow is down 3,000 points in less than a year and we are still in official bear market territiory.

Unemployment flew through 6% and those who closely watch this believe it will go higher. Cheaper mortgage rates are not what they need.

We are losing jobs at the fastest rate since the depression. GM, Ford and Chrysler are burning through more cash than the budget of many medium sized countries around the world.

Some people have been waiting for the magic turnaround because they refuse or are incapable of seeing or believing in facts, maybe for political reasons, I don't know. Their epiphany may be the black swan event. They rush in to buy every time the magic bullet is fired from the starters gun that signals we have seen the bottom and the financials are now healthy. Then we have rallies in financials that last for a few days, usually less than a week.

There have been 7 or 8 of these rallies just this year. In that time UYG has gone from $73 to $21.