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I'll just put my 2 cents in on the money market comments. I have an online broker account that pays me interest on my money while not invested in stocks. It was paying about 3-4% for most of the Bush term. Then, out of the blue, they moved our money to a cash account that pays almost nothing. When I complained about it, they explained that the realestate mess was endangering Money Market funds. I had no idea that Money Markets are almost 100% in real estate backed instruments. About a month and a half later, the run on the banks. Thank God, they got me out. I heard stories of people asking for their money and they got IOU’s. It was in the fine print of my trustee agreement where I found the names of the banks and instruments the Money Market was invested in. About 70% was backed by real estate CMO’s. Other names were bank bonds that had trouble with real estate securities. That was when I started to realize just how serious the problem was, when AAA bonds were worthless.