Naturally, at the focus of renewed market pessimism is a struggling financial: CIT Group. (NYSE:CIT) The company — a hundred-year-old staple of small/medium business lending — is no stranger to walking the credit tightrope. They narrowly averted fiscal meltdown late last year with $2.3 billion in TARP bucks… then again in July by goosing bondholders with a $3 billion a debt-to-equity deal. Back then we joked, “Look for this crisis to repeat in a couple weeks.” We were wrong… it took a couple months.

 Goldman Sachs Would Have Collapsed If Not For Henry Paulson.

For the first time in a couple of decades, some of America’s most successful, big-name investors are buying gold.

American International Group Inc, the world’s biggest insurer, has announced it will replace CEO Martin Sullivan. The news comes after AIG reported record losses due to risky mortgage bets.

Sullivan follows the departure of a wave of Wall Street top execs, including the recent bloodletting at ailing investment bank Lehman Brothers.

“On Wall Street, after Bear Stearns fainted, the other financial firms took smelling salts,” says Bill Bonner in The Daily Reckoning.

This week saw Lehman Brothers replace two of its top executives: CFO Erin Callan and COO Joseph Gregor. The two will remain at the bank in lesser roles.

“As recently as a month ago,” says Justice Litle in Taipan Daily, “Erin Callan was on top of the world.”

The WSJ did a glowing piece on her rise through the ranks. Condé Nast’s Portfolio magazine dubbed her the most powerful woman on Wall Street.

Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest US investment bank, is at the centre of a storm of bad news stories.

Shares in the Wall Street powerhouse tumbled 31% last month on the NYSE on expections of heavy Q2 losses and the likelihood that the bank will have to raise cash to cover subprime-related writedowns. However, unlike rival Bear Stearns, the word on the Street is that Lehman will survive.

“On Wall Street, after Bear Stearns fainted, the other financial firms took smelling salts,” says Bill Bonner in The Daily Reckoning.

The trouble with getting older…Big Ben expresses himself…Globalization is no longer a force for good – but a force for evil…the Bear Stearns domino effect…End of the road for Hilary…a new hotline service – made just for central bankers…and more!

With the gas prices nearing $4 a gallon in many parts of the US, one of the alternatives people are starting to talk about is solar-powered cars.

Google says the term “solar powered car” is one of the hottest search trends on the internet, as Americans seek alternatives to high fuel costs.

According to a recent Lehman Brothers report, the solar-powered-car revolution may not be coming anytime soon. The Wall Street bank in predicting crude oil prices at $83 a barrel in 2009 and as low as $70 in 2010.

Back among the worriers…the United States is headed toward a recession, says the IMF… A look back at a ‘great’ war…Lehman Bros. liquidate three of their funds. Someone you definitely want as your next-door neighbor…and more!

The present period in financial history favors ducks and undertakers. On the banks of the Thames and the Hudson, every day they fish a couple more cadavers out of the water. And then the medical examiner opens them up so we get to see what caused them to go under. What a sight! It is amazing that any sane investor ever had anything to do with them in the first place.