Once of the biggest casualties in the financial crisis has been REITs. Globally, these made astonishing gains during the property boom. But they’ve taken one heck of a beating since.

Eric Roseman says the US REIT sector is likely to recover first. That’s because Europe and Asia are behind the US in the credit crunch cycle and have further to fall.

Pending home sales index bounced 7.4% in September. And government-auctioned foreclosures create great property bargains. Eric says iShares Real Estate ETF (NYSE:IYR) is one good way of playing this recovery.

Remember how this whole financial mess started? Here’s a clue: house prices fell by a record 16.3% y-o-y in July.

Investors have fled the real estate market over the last year. But Andrew Snyder says the best time to invest in a sector is when it’s beaten down and oversold.

REIT Associated Estates Realty (NYSE:AEC) allows investors to bet on the housing recovery without the need to buy and sell property. It also pays healthy dividends in the meantime.

Former professional trader and hedge-fund manager Shah Gilani says the very complexity of the global financial system brought us to the brink of a total meltdown. Asset-backed securities such as structured collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps and the horrific offspring of the two, credit default swaps on structured collateralized debt obligations, are the main culprits, says Shah:

Crude oil prices fell below $100 a barrel today on the back of the collapse of Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH).

The decline of oil since July has provided some relief to US drivers, and some analysts hope this trend will help revive consumption and retail sales.

Wave Strength Options Weekly editor Adam Lass disagrees. He says rising unemployment and record foreclosures are forcing households to tighten the purse strings - and a small saving on gas prices isn’t going to change that anytime soon.

This is why Adam says investors should continue to short the retail sector.

The government’s bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) has Wall Street on a roll. After yesterday’s rally, US stock futures are pointing up again today.

For legendary investor Jim Rogers, however, the government’s intervention is “socialism for the rich.”

One big issue is the Treasury Department’s agreement to make secured loans to the companies if needed and even buy some mortgage-backed securities itself.