TGIF

What a week. Even shortened by the Veterans Day holiday, there was enough news and notes to get me through the rest of the month. There was a staggeringly bad jobless claims number, which should have made rates go down, but they went up. Fannie and Freddie announced gigantic losses for the quarter, which means more money from the Treasury. There was talk of an auto-industry bailout from the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) and then the news that the TARP itself was no longer going to be used to buy "toxic" mortgage assets after all.

What does all this boil down to? More uncertainty, more market volatility, and more stress. Today at least rates are down. At some point, we will have seen the worst and things are likely to boomerang towards better days. With all the money being thrown at the problem, it had better improve! My advice: close your eyes and jump. Not out the window, but into the market. You have nothing to lose but your shirt, and then the government will buy you a new one.