Hello recession, my old friend

I'd braced myself for a wild ride. The collapse of Lehman Bros., the shotgun sale of Merrill Lynch and the bailout of insurance colossus AIG made a week of vertiginous Wall Street trading inevitable. On Friday, the Dow was down a mere 0.3% on the week -- but to get there, the Fed and the Treasury had to pump hundreds of billions into the global financial system. It's pretty clear that the seizure isn't over and that recession denial is no longer a growth profession.

By Matthew DeBord

September 21, 2008