It's hard to understand on a daily basis what is going on with the economy. We'll be staying abreast of what's happening and report the broadest trends. We'll try to give you a bird's eye view of what is happening with the economic crisis, the market, our banking system, and the politicization of all of those things.

1. Now that we're in a foreclosure crisis, apparently some of the commercial loans out there should. The WSJ reports that a recent study shows that while big companies pay their bills slower, they are also flexing their muscle to collect from small businesses. Businesses under $500 million tend to pay their bills faster and are nicer about collecting from their debtors. A small merchant says, "There's a power struggle going on as the credit crunch has moved to Main Street," says Sung Won Sohn, a former chief economist at Wells Fargo who now teaches at California State University, Channel Islands. "Big firms can force their terms on suppliers and customers. And if you're a small business or a small store in a mall, you have no bargaining power and have to take what's given, which is not much today."

2. The Federal Deposit Insurance Fund insures deposits we make to FDIC-insured banks. Banks are failing at a faster clip in recent days and the FDIC's pool of insurance funds is dwindling. WSj predicts a coming FDIC bailout.

3. Many states are experiencing budget shortfalls as income tax revenue declines with employment. These shortfalls have resulted in lack of funds for education and in LA, they may open up the education system to private companies. Our on-the-ground locals from Detroit report that the city is proposing further salary cuts for more and more teachers in their ailing education system.

4. It's great to hear that more prominent people are standing for a council of or single financial industry oversight body that is different from the Federal Reserve. Both Sheila Bair of the FDIC and Senate Banking Chairman, Dodd propose to strip the Federal Reserve of systemic risk oversight power that it has abused in the past. We're unveiling a petition on that front as well. In our opinion, the toughest obstacle for regulation by council or unified body is having safeguards against either being captured by the banks. Seems like maybe a council would be better for guarding against regulatory capture, but we'll need to look into the best alternative available in the coming days.

5. It's pretty clear changing our financial system for the better is on the back burner while health care is debated. Health care reform outcomes can affect what happens with the banks -- the banks probably are feeling pretty happy and off the hook at this point.

6. The latest lobbying attack by the US Chamber of Commerce makes you feel like the banks that took down the country understand regulation was missing in the lead up to the financial crisis. After they get down to our level of understanding, they try to trick us by saying that to solve the problem we should follow their wisdom and stop consumer protection measures.

Their talking points include the following:

"· Clear regulatory gaps contributed to great economic harm to millions of Americans and failed to protect consumers adequately. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports reform solutions that will, in fact, better protect consumers in the future.

· We agree with the diagnosis that regulators failed to have a coherent and
effective approach to consumer protection, and agree that reform is necessary.

· The objectives of such reform should be to regulate previously unregulated
entities, weed out predatory products, and improve disclosures so they are clear, concise and apprise consumers in understandable terms about the risks posed by financial products. We believe this can be done while striking a balance with ensuring consumer choice, credit and product availability and affordability."

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