Today, I had two friends, 40-somethings, professionals, both let go due to drastic cuts at their places of employmeny. No severence. Gone.

On Saturday, I spoke with another good friend. He runs a very large group home (250+ kids) for troubled kids. He was dreading going into to work today, because he found out on Friday that he needed to let 15 staff members go. Solid, middle class folks with families, making 60-100K. He told me that their prospects for employment were downright bleak. No one is hiring.

Did you catch that 60 Minutes piece last night? It explained in terms even I could understand what these banks and insurance companies did that got us into this mess. I was under the impression that these finance/banker types were as sharp as they come. For cryin' out loud, even I could figure out that you should not be so heavily invested in something so high-risk! And then, to "insure" (swap?!) the risk with paper that was not fully funded? That sounds like a street flim-flam con to me. And I pay for advice from these knuckleheads?!!!? I am going to commit myself from this day forward to learn more about managing my own economic fate.

Now the market is seriously tanking today......again. The ink on the bailout legislation is barely dry, and the market has digested it and moved on. This is scary. A friend of mine, on the verge of retirement, called me this morning in absolute panic. He is staring at the prospect of having to go back to work at 65. I saw Jim Kramer (the Mad Money Guy) this morning say that if you need your money for anything in the next 5 years, get it out of the market.

I am starting to get the feeling that this may be just then tip of the iceberg. God, I hope I am wrong. I do know that I am going to have to start watching what I spend, which means chip money just got scarce.

Damn.