Hey, everybody- how's your money doing today? If you invested it, the answer probably is "not very good." That's because the stock market fell fell 500 points today off news that one of America's largest banks, Lehman Brothers, had filed for bankruptcy.

If you're wondering how this all started, it has to do with all of those foreclosed homes you see around you. The reason they are foreclosed is because the owners could not pay off the loans with which they bought the houses. This is because the people the lenders (Fannie Mae? Freddie Mac? Lehman Brothers? etc etc) gave them "adjustable rate" loans that started out reasonable, then, when the lending rate went up, turned impossible. This happened over and over in our country- and the results, as see today, have been devastating.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the first investment companies to near bankruptcy, were bailed out by the federal government (aka your taxpayer money). But that couldn't continue, so when Lehman Brothers reached the brink, no one was there to bail them out. The result is what Alan Greenspan called the worst economic disaster he has ever seen. All of this could have been prevented with more regulations and oversight over predatory lending.

So, my question for you is, where do we go from here? How screwed are we, really? And what kind of ramifications is this going to have for the presidential election?

The government shouldn't bail out any private company. That's not what the government is for and it's certainly not what I want my taxes used for. Increased regulation isn't the answer, either. It's not a free market if the government controls it.

Let the companies fail. The economy will rebound and new, better run companies will take the place of the bankrupt ones. Yes, the consumers will suffer, but maybe this situation will help them to realize that buying things you can't afford is a bad idea.

Lower the price of oil or more importantly find alternative fuel.<------It's my future job U.U

Yes I Wolfie will be one of the people to save America from crisis with my brilliance.

Hush now, your saviour has arrived.

But in all seriousness if the price of oil was lowered than more people would leave their homes and do more stuff like shop and visit places. Also everything would be cheaper because the cost of transportation would be lower.