Does Anyone Have Some Tums? - a Palm Springs, Palm Desert, & Indian Wells California Finance Attorney Take on the Growing Financial Crisis

Pass me a couple of airsick bags, will you?

Watching the stock market drop like an airplane hitting an air pocket and then rising only to drop again is enough to give you heartburn, even for a California finance attorney. Business, real estate, corporate and finance lawyers, whether they practice in San Diego, Orange County, Palm Springs or Indian Wells think they have seen it all when it comes to seeing finance fraud in litigation cases. But the testimony we have been hearing about the fraud in the financial markets is enough to turn your hair white, if you have any left. The words I've been hearing are making people quake in their boots. Panic, stock crash, depression, bank runs...

Somebody, pass me the Tums, will you?

Yes, there were professors from esteemed institutions of higher learning saying that the bailout proposal Congress passed wouldn't solve the problem, and yes, they may have been right, but neither them being right nor the passing the bailout bill hasn't calmed the financial markets in the U.S. or the rest of the world. The Dow has been dropping 300, 500, 600, and nearly 700 points now for, well, I've lost track of how many days it has dropped. Many are now routinely calling it a stock crash. Others are now calling the Great Depression of the 1930s the First Great Depression. Has anyone seen my 401K or IRAs? Last I saw they were going down the sewer.

Does anyone have some milk for my stomach?

Yes, there are also people out there saying that the financial bailout was a bad idea all around. That it rewarded the rich, and those foreign investors who got sucked into buying our financial stocks. As it turned out, they may have needed it just as much as we do. Last I heard, Iceland was facing bankruptcy as a country and now that their markets are falling like leaves, it's throwing more wood onto our own fire sale on Wall Street.

Does anyone know if alcohol and Tums are a bad combination?

Reports are that the Federal Reserve and foreign central banks are making hundreds of billions of dollars and euros and other currencies available for the world's banking systems to boost the amount of money available for lending so banks will feel confident to start lending to one another and to businesses again. Anyone feel confident yet? Anyone tried to get a loan lately?

Has anyone seen my bottle of scotch?

I think we just learned what it was that scared Hank Paulson, George Bush and all the rest of the usual suspects who testify to Congress that the world was in effect going to come to and end if the bailout plan wasn't passed. Well, it turned out they were almost right, despite passing the Bailout Plan. No the world isn't coming to an end, and we don't have a depression like in the 1930s, but in case there is something more that our leaders know that is still going to cause something else to implode, could they just tell us exactly when it is set to implode? I want to make sure I have my head ducked under something.

Isn't Tagamet good for an upset stomach, or is that Pepto Bismol?

Yes, I know that all is not good in the world of credit card balances, student loan programs, home mortgages, equity lines of credit, construction loans, corporate debt, auto loans, commercial real estate loans and those swaps that you hear about but don't really know exactly what they consist of on the financial channels. But, last I checked, hey, I'm still here. They still have groceries on the shelves, they still take my credit card and gas is getting cheaper by the day.

Hey, Houston, Ground Control, we're still here!