“With the grand exception of Visa Inc.’s IPO, March was a month filled with misery for the U.S. IPO market,” reports The Wall Journal.

Turns out March will be the slowest month for IPOs since August 2003, with a measly three IPOs.

Like the broader market, which experienced wild mood swings during the month, IPOs suffered from investor panic in March as the credit crisis enveloped more firms and economists began to speak more assuredly of a recession ahead.

The feds are looking at nationalizing US banks — as was done in Nordic countries in the 1990s — as a possible fix for the ongoing credit crisis.

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph:

A senior official at one of the Scandinavian central banks told The Daily Telegraph that Fed strategists had stepped up contacts to learn how Norway, Sweden and Finland managed their traumatic crisis from 1991 to 1993, which brought the region’s economy to its knees.

US consumer spending rose by a measly 0.1% in February, it’s slowest rate of growth in over a year.

Spending, which accounts for 70% of the US economy, may be technically up, but the the lack of real growth is likely to weigh heavily on investor sentiment.

Record falls in home prices, job losses and sky-high energy costs mean Americans are doing the unthinkable: they’re cutting back on spending.

Although the biggest subprime-related hits to big banks may be over, more heavy losses are forecast.

The bad news will continue for Merrill Lynch and UBS, according to a recently released analyst’s note from Oppenheimer & Co.

Hey it’s not all bad news. At least the footy season starts in eight days. Go the Saints! Go the Demons! We can’t decide on which team to barrack for. So we’re hedging our bets for now, betting on both extremes.

“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.

For company owners and CEOs, “March Madness” has a double meaning.

Twenty-one of Europe’s most powerful bankers were sitting down to a sumptuous feast that evening in Frankfurt.

Switzerland probably is the world’s most famous financial haven, and now holds about a third of the world’s wealth.

The power to make loads of money from failing equities is within your very reach…

See, playing penny options can be one of the best ways to capitalize on downside moves in distressed stocks.