It’s called the “Shadow Fed.” And it’s the next potential hot spot in the ongoing financial crisis. But few outside the Federal Home Loan Bank system, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department are remotely aware of the problems that are smoldering.

More tough news for U.S. jobs… what you need to know in today’s BLS employment report…Dow setting records left and right… two historic looks at just how lousy 2009 has been…Chris Mayer on the next megatrend… far bigger than the current crisis…Chuck Butler explores “a strange thing happening in currencies”…Plus, a reader exposes our “simple-minded,” “right-wing babbling” for what it is… at last…

651K jobs lost in Feb…  Dec. and Jan Job losses revised up…  Talking Norway, Canada, Australia… Brazil stealthlike for 3 months… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

The banking-sector crisis is getting better by the minute. What was a financial disaster has turned into some first-rate political entertainment. Our nation’s leaders are putting in an award-winning performance.

No one person is responsible for the credit crisis, the failure of investment banks, the insolvency of commercial banks world-wide, the implosion of the world’s stock markets, or for leading us to the precipice of another great depression.

The U.S. Treasury has agreed to lend $6 billion to GMAC LLC (GOM), the financing arm of General Motors Corp. (GM), in the latest government effort to keep the biggest U.S. automaker out of bankruptcy.

Mid-East Violence Drives Crude Higher; IndyMac to be Sold by Year’s end; Retailers in for Tough Start to 2009; Six-month Treasury Rate Hits Record Low; Commercial Banks Report $6 Billion in 3Q Revenue

Profit in 2009:  Think like a Fed governor… A “mere” 25 banks failed in 2008… proof that the FDIC expects many more next year… Retail on the brink… preliminary reports suggest holiday consumption even lower than anticipated… So who will thrive in 2009? An unsavory list of stocks prime to benefit from a lousy economy… Middle East moving markets… why news from Kuwait and Gaza is affecting your portfolio today… Byron King on the $200 billion consumer bailout Congress never passed

Bank of American Corp. (BAC), which is getting $15 billion from the U.S. government as part of the Treasury Department’s $250 billion “recapitalization” effort, is doubling its stake in state-owned China Construction Bank Corp., and will hold a 20% stake worth $24 billion in China’s second-largest lender when that deal is finalized.

Consumer Confidence Climbs; Home Prices Record Plunge; Troubled Banks on the Rise; Oil Falls 7%; Slim’s Bank Buys Citi Stock; D.R. Horton Shares Vault