Tippy,understand this. There are plenty of private investors who are willing to buy the assets these financial institutions are carrying (like Warren Buffet) at the value of the assets. These instituions will continue to "freeze" the credit and hold onto these assets because they know that the feds are coming to the rescue and pay 20,30 or 40% more than the value of the assets. If the feds didn't send that message they would sell to the private investors and you and I(you are not the only ones that lost money) would be on the hook for very little. Sometimes, telegraphing you're intent sends the wrong message! That is why even though I lost this week, I feel we will lose more, if we have to bail these"losers" out, with no guarantee of success. The market WILL come back it always does. That is why it important to reward success and weed out the failures. What they government should do, is give 100 billion to successful domestic companies to help them grow, not reward losers with 100 billion!