In my larval, pre-blogging days, I always faced the back-to-school moment with abject dread.  It meant returning to a program of the most severe, mind-numbing regimentation in the ghastly New York City public schools after a summer of idyllic unreality in the New Hampshire woods, where I went to a Lord of the Flies type of summer camp.  And so here I am, many decades later, still uneasy as the final page of the August calendar flies away in a hot Santa Ana wind, and a great hellfire closes in on the far eastern reaches of Los Angeles, and the American money system falls into a peculiar limbo, and every fifth person is out of work, or going bankrupt, or glugging…

Japan Election Rout Shakes Shares; Shanghai Composite Falls Nearly 7%; Walt Disney Adding Marvel to its Roster; Baker Hughes Buys Rival BJ Services; PetroChina Gaining Athabasca Tar Sand Control; Petrobras Wants 30% Stake in Brazil Reserve Wells; India’s Economy Grows 6.1%; JPMorgan: China-Taiwan Interested in Mutual Opportunities; Funds Dumping U.S. Consumer Stocks

The major indices may be in negative territory today, but it is a good day for Wall Street. If the nation’s largest companies are buying, consumers cannot be too far behind.

Imagine waking up tomorrow morning with no access to the Internet. No e-mail. No news. No streaming video.

All Three Markets Rise on Earnings Beats; Government Now Citi’s Biggest Shareholder; Jobless Claims Up but Subsiding; Crude Surges More Than 5%; Motorola Surprises; Recession Takes a Toll on House of Mouse; Ballmer Defends Yahoo Partnership; Southwest Makes Bid for Frontier

Now that the results of the U.S. bank stress tests are finally in the books, the extent of the capital shortfalls are known and – in many cases – are actually being addressed.

Massive unemployment? No problem! Adam Lass of the Taipan Publishing Group says that no one is buying luxury goods right now but he gives us two puts in the retail sector that are playing out well during the crisis.

As the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression continues to worsen, decades of deregulation and the growing independence at the state level are being reversed as a deteriorating national economy forces the federal government to increasingly take on responsibilities that no other institution has the power or resources to handle.

Never has there been a time where the stock market has influenced the commodities markets so much.

Last time I checked, the price of soybeans, cocoa or orange juice had absolutely no relationship to whether Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Disney (NYSE: DIS), or Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) declined in price.

But these days, we’ve got a serious blurring of the lines between global marketplaces. In addition, the prevalence and ease of electronic trading, coupled with well-capitalized hedge funds, means we’re seeing all kinds of different markets having an affect on one another.

Not so long ago, it used to be that money typically flowed from one asset class to another – for example, from stocks to commodities. But that isn’t happening now as most players have either bailed…

Gas prices have soared in the aftermath of hurricane Ike due to damage inflicted on major Gulf Coast refineries. Unleaded regular has risen 17 cents since the storm hit to reach $3.842 a gallon. Money Morning’s William Patalon III says gas shortages from a tough hurricane season are likely to affect much of the Southern US.