On January 9, 2006, shares of homebuilder Beazer Homes closed at $80.95. Exactly two years later, on January 9, 2008, the shares closed at $4.99 a fall of 94%. “They’ve fallen that much, eh?” legendary speculator Doug Casey said last week at our private gathering on Jekyll Island.

JPMorgan and the U.S. Treasury just saved us from the real risk of Depression…It was the Panic of ‘07. The economy was weakening. Stocks were falling. Banks had lent too much and were now seriously tightening up. It all came to a head when a major bank was about to fail. Something had to be done.

I think commodities will turn out to be a fantastic place to invest for the rest of this decade. Returns in commodities should easily beat stocks and bonds for the next five years.

Last Sunday, the tide turned. The boys in Washington finally got scared enough about the housing crisis and credit crunch that they did something about it. The Fed, the White House, and the Treasury… they all got together and built an impenetrable backstop for us. In fact, they overdid it.

Investment bank Bear Stearns vaporized yesterday… On Friday, it was worth $20 billion.  As of yesterday, it’s basically worthless.

“You can’t go wrong in small banks at these prices,” Ben told me last night.

Ben’s retired now. But he was the CEO of a few smaller banks over his career.

The new credit crunch is here. It just arrived. And unfortunately, this time it’s even worse than what we saw in mid-August of 2007.