While the entire U.S. housing market was on the verge of collapse and corporate America was being systemically undermined, regulators purposely looked the other way.  Why would they do this?

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).

At the risk of confirming my critics’ dumbest charge — that I am a “doomer” — the mandate of clarity requires me to ask: to what state of affairs do we expect to recover?

Time magazine has again demonstrated its irrelevance in the Internet age with a fatuous feature called “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.”

Once upon a time, generous-minded social engineering resulted in the Community Reinvestment Act, which forced banks to lend to disadvantaged borrowers who otherwise couldn’t get mortgages to buy homes.

Financial journalists, most of whom spend more time writing about derivatives than carburetors, have been scathing about the possibility of an auto industry bailout, even though they’ve happily accepted multiple bailouts for the financial sector.

Whether you agree with them or not, the bailout programs will keep on coming. Keith Fitz-Gerald looks at the key impact these will have on the dollar, commodities and global stocks. He says we could be in line for a market rebound by mid-2009, and suggests six ways to prepare your portfolio now.

The masks are coming off. It’s the end of the party, now we get to see what people really look like. And it’s not a pretty sight.

Andrew Snyder says stock investors should look out for more market sell-offs around October 23 and November 4 and 5. This is when WaMu (OTC:WAMUQ) and Iceland’s bankrupt institutions face their CDS settlements.