The big comeback should already be here, according to Wall Street pundits. It was due to arrive in the fourth quarter… a 50 percent increase in earnings led by – of all sectors – banks.

The action on Wall Street is nauseating. The more Washington acts, the more Wall Street drops. The folks with stomachs strong enough to keep them in the market are looking more like gamblers than investors. They are quickly realizing all roads lead to Washington.

I should not have to tell you that this is going to be a big week, a monumental week, really – not only for the country, but for Wall Street.

The forces of the universe are pulling against one another. Tomorrow at noon, the nation will gain a leader that has inspired hope in millions of Americans. Economically, Obama’s stimulus plan is viewed as the last chance to keep the nation’s economy from retreating to a full-on depression.

I will be watching closely to see if Obama’s 6-foot-1-inch body shrinks at the exact moment he places his left hand on the bible as the weight of numerous global crises is piled on his back. It will take one heck of a leadership…

Wall Street bankers create products like any other manufacturer seeking to sell goods or services for a profit. The products those bankers create are financial instruments and the services they sell include advisory services, which they provide to investors and use to sell their financial products. And being the shrewd businessmen and women they are, Wall Street’s bankers also make a habit of being both buyers and sellers of their own products. All the better to serve their customers who wish to trade their products.

The most foreboding Christmas season in history…every day brings more cutbacks, more bankruptcies and more trouble… Borrowers have counted on home equity money to fill in the gaps in their household budgets, using borrowing in place of saving… Americans are really beginning to resent Wall  Street…Consumer prices are sure to fail in the near future…and more!

It’s abundantly clear now that too much borrowing and spending in recent years is at the core of the current economic crisis. But what perplexes Bill Bonner is that government policy still assumes that more of the same is the only way to get us out of this mess. And Wall Street is only too happy to go along with it…

Nations do not purchase their prosperity, says Eric Fry. Since this crisis started last year, the government has thrown around $8 trillion at the problem. But these are banknotes that it has manufactured for itself. And that’s why we may soon face a severe threat from inflation.

Oxford Club’s Alex Green explains how Wall Street’s supposedly safe structured products became an investor’s nightmare. In reality, they were just a gimmick. Alex says this just underscores why investors should be cautious of any product that comes with “guaranteed” returns.

This is no ordinary slump, says Bill Bonner. We face a “balance sheet recession”, where banks, businesses and investors are forced to cut back after suffering huge losses. Bill says this will take years to sort out. And government efforts to delay the inevitable will just draw out the ordeal.

“We have never seen such a foolhardy effort on the part of the world’s governments to prevent a correction,” says Bill Bonner. The market is not being allowed to work as it should. First Wall Street told us we could borrow and spend forever. And now messieurs Bernanke and Paulson tell us they can fix this mess. Bill says all they will succeed in doing is creating the next major monetary crisis.