I suppose its part of the human condition to extrapolate short term movements into longer term trends. Afterall that's what got us into the mess to begin with, first there was the tech bubble....and then the housing bubble...both grew on the idea that recent price appreciation would continue forever. Now if only to prove that optimists don't have a monopoly on tunnel vision pessimists proudly shout from the mountain tops the demise of the dollar, the U.S. economy and in some cases civilization in general.

Yes there are problems and there will probably be some painful decisions in our future. That's how the whole thing works, some like to call it a market cycle. It's probably not the end of the world. Although note, I did say probably...

Not to nitpick or anything, but #55 the comment about LTCM....The NY Fed did not bailout LTCM with tax-payer money...it organized a bailout of LTCM with contributions from 14 private firms... not quite the same thing....personally I think this kind of intervention is appropriate and good for the overall system.

As a side note Bear Sterns decided not to participate...read what you will into that.

hmmmm after reading this and the article related to landmines on regular BB I wonder if a bunch of these might be helpful for more than finding "gold coin replicas".