Most commodities, with the exception of hogs, gold and nickel, fell on Monday

Specialists say their biggest worry now is not whether the economy is already or will soon be in a recession. Far more fundamental and troubling is the health of the financial system that greases the wheels of capitalism

“The Fed can do no good at all if they effectively print money and give it to the banks, and the banks dig a hole in the ground and put it in there,”“The Fed can do no good at all if they effectively print money and give it to the banks, and the banks dig a hole in the ground and put it in there,” (meaning: the banks need to give out loans with this money to make the plan work!)

New York Times, 3.18.08

They feel that a downturn has been averted for now. One of the biggest commodities brokers stock plunges 65%, many investors refuse to trade through them, some poor bloke loses 140M in unsecured wheat futures, which kinda tells us what really is going on out there in the trading world - doesn't it?! there are so many risky, leveraging, counter leveraging, buying on margin, etc tactics - a playground of real(?) money being toyed with. Will this crisis put a damper on some of this, or just up the ante?

The Hongkong, Shanghai and India market s all down by 5%, Japan up 1.5%

Where are all these people putting their money now$