When Pfizer Inc. (PFE) unveiled a $68 billion buyout offer for U.S. rival Wyeth (WYE) last week, it sparked hopes that the deal might re-ignite the moribund merger market. But when the Wall Street dealmakers take a closer look, those flames will likely be doused in cold water.

Think about Michigan or about Ohio’s Mahoning Valley in the 1980s. Both were famous for industries that were world leaders in their time. Yet, once those industries decayed, large parts of both areas became wastelands of home foreclosures, crime and alcoholism.

With the U.S. credit markets in lockdown mode, a whipsaw stock market that keeps anyone from getting too comfortable, a banking sector in chaos and a recession that clearly won’t be ending any time soon, U.S. dealmakers are looking at a market for mergers and acquisitions that’s in a virtual deep freeze.

After a two-day “holiday” to start the week–Martin Luther King Day today (Monday) and Inauguration Day tomorrow (Tuesday)–it’ll be back to business on Wednesday as Congress begins to grill U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner – the appointment many observers believe to be the most important of the new Barack Obama administration.

International industrial giant ABB Ltd. (ADR:ABB) is set to generate big business as governments around the world implement economic stimulus packages. Horacio Marquez says the company’s bullet-proof balance sheet, strong margins and solid cash flow will mitigate the fallout from the global credit crisis. And its strong long-term prospects make it a great buy today.

Deutsche Bank Drops $6.3 Billion in 4Q; Nortel Files for Chap. 11; Lehman Out of Chap. 11 in 18-24 Months; Work on World’s Tallest Building Delayed; Yahoo Tunes in to Asian Players; Record Job Cuts; More Adults Downloading TV; D-TV Switch Could be Delayed

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.

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…

Ask investing icon Jim Rogers about the $700 billion U.S. banking bailout, and he’ll tell you that it’s nothing but “horrible economics.”  And with good reason: Most of the major U.S. banks are already bankrupt.

If there’s a proverb that captures the outlook for the U.S. economy in the New Year, it’s the one that says: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”