This week shows an incredibly busy economic calendar and this might not bode well for the market. The first report of the week comes out at 8:30 this morning and the schedule doesn’t let up until Friday morning. With so many important reports expected to show a decline versus last month, this could be a painful week in the market.

After some late-week political wrangling that also consumed most of the weekend, congressional leaders late yesterday (Sunday) announced their agreement to a detailed version of the long-awaited $700 billion bailout plan that analysts say is crucial to keep the U.S. economy out of a Depression-like downturn.

I was speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at a North Carolina investing conference recently when a sharply worded question soared over the group from a gentleman seated in the back row – and who was clearly agitated by my analysis of the whole bailout-plan situation.

I was speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at a North Carolina investing conference recently when a sharply worded question soared over the group from a gentleman seated in the back row – and who was clearly agitated by my analysis of the whole bailout-plan situation.“How would you have handled it differently, Mr. Smarty-Pants?” he asked, in a challenging voice.

Even with a congressional compromise having been reached, the $700 billion credit-crisis bailout plan will remain the headline story this week as analysts monitor whether the deal is viewed as a good one, or is ultimately regarded as a flawed deal that can only do damage to the U.S. economy over the long haul.

An insurrection among Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday torpedoed any chance that the Bush administration’s planned $700 billion plan would pass expeditiously, as members of the House refused to back U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson’s measures and offered up their own plan to solve the credit crisis – a plan they say does not cost the American taxpayer.

Congressional negotiators late yesterday reached a tentative agreement on a credit-crisis compromise. It gives the Bush administration about a third of the $700 billion it has requested up front but made sure half that outlay was subject to a congressional veto, reports William Patalon III.

U.S. stocks dropped for the third straight day yesterday (Wednesday) on worries that increasingly rancorous debates will squelch a proposed $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial system even as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Congressional leaders that the credit crisis was already damaging the American economy.

Investing icon Warren Buffett took his own advice Tuesday – getting “greedy when others are fearful” – when he ignored the banking-sector bonfire and slapped down a cool $5 billion for a stake in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS). By literally putting his money where his mouth is, Buffett’s actions – and reputation as a shrewd bargain hunter – restored some of Goldman’s luster and helped bolster investor confidence in the U.S. banking system.

Neither Hank Paulson’s plan nor any of the additions by Congress and lobbyists will resolve the credit crisis, says Shah Gilani in Money Morning. That’s because “the key culprits are the structured financial products on the balance sheets of banks, dead investment banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and all manner of other duped and unsuspecting investor entities worldwide, as well as the proliferation of the unregulated $62 trillion credit default swaps market.” Shah says 15 simple steps would end the credit crisis for good…