For frustrated investors looking to justify the ban of credit default swaps (CDS), look no further than last week’s corporate bankruptcies of Canadian newsprint producer AbitibiBowater Inc. (ABWTQ) and U.S. shopping center developer General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP).

Investors are breathing a sigh of relief that 2008 is over, but they shouldn’t get too comfortable. After all, with a worldwide recession under way, investors can expect acceleration in corporate bankruptcies in 2009.

But the question is – which ones?

In the financial services sector, 2008 was a year of spectacular failures:

• Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. were absorbed by JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC), respectively.
• Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (OTC: LEHMQ) filed for bankruptcy protection.
• And financial-sector giants American International Group Inc. (AIG) and Citigroup Inc. (C) were both bailed out a vast expense to taxpayers.

If at the start of 2008 I’d written that the entire New York investment banking business would disappear during the…

The markets are looking over the worst spending slump in 60 years…that planet’s first Worldwide Bailout… And look at that – we’re back to the ‘deficits don’t matter’ stance…the more the Fed tries to fix the problem, the worse it gets… Savers are losing a couple of percent per year to inflation…investors are losing money in every asset class…and more!