Like it or not, bailout intervention is (or was) needed to provide liquidity to the credit markets. Frankly, it is already bordering on too late. Not only has anyone with equities in their IRA's or investment portfolios lost a whole lot of money, but the credit markets have all but shut down.

We won't see the effect of the credit markets decline for days or weeks, but here's what to expect...

-- We will experience even greater losses in the stock market. Some think the Dow will decline to between 8,000-8,500.

--Your credit limit on your credit cards will be reduced to the amount outstanding. Those that pay their card balance every month will still have their typically large credit limits dramatically reduced. The days of charging big ticket items on a credit card are over, probably for a long while.

--It will be virtually impossible to get a new home mortgage loan. If you were planning on selling your house or buying a new one, you will almost certainly be impacted. If you'll need to refinance soon, look for an increased interest rate. Car loans will be tough to get. If the car company finance subsidiaries can't get credit--almost impossible.

--We will begin to read of companies not being able to make payroll. That will begin to happen this week and next.

-- In the slightly longer term, many companies will begin reporting large losses. Begin to look for the explanation, "insufficient corporate credit to purchase inventories or make capital expenditures".

-- Several big and well-known former blue chip banks and companies will sell themselves to avoid declaring bankruptcy or to avoid liquidation. Look for such events among some of the weaker big non-financial companies as well--the auto companies come to mind. If any of the three remaining "big" banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America or Citi) are so effected, then we will be looking at another Great Depression.

--Many, many companies will go out of business and their employees will be laid off. Many of the retailers, fast food chains and big box stores aren't going to make it as they are currently organized. Watch for the unemployment numbers to increase in coming months and more empty storefronts.

-- Closer to home, I'd be amazed if the construction and sales of new homes in The Villages doesn't decline to a trickle. For those with cash who want to buy a home here, I'm predicting some of the greatest deals ever known here in a few months. If Citizens First has enough deposits to continue to make mortgage loans, look for the required downpayments to be much larger and the interest rates to be much higher. But all that is predicated on CF having enough local deposits to continue mortgage lending.

-- A last and more difficult to discern result will be the severe damage that has been done to the reputation of the U.S. and our ability to effect world affairs, both financial and political. On one broadcast on a foreign financial market cable channel last night, one of the foreign news services referred to the U.S. and the inability of our political leaders to reach agreement as "like a banana republic". I was saddened by the reference, but I can't argue with its accuracy.

The Congress had a shot at avoiding much of this over the weekend. When they didn't act on Monday and many went home to campaign for re-election or celebrate the holidays, the damage to the financial system began and may be largely irreversible. Whether it's a bad recession or another "great depression" what we're experiencing will effect all of us for years to come.

Am I angry? Absolutely! Even moreso after checking my retirement portfolio this morning. But was some sort of government intervention needed to avoid or temper all this? Yes it was. And now that it hasn't happened, those who embrace the free market solution will endure the results with everyone else.

I didn't draft this reply to say "I told you so" or to suggest a dire and threatening scenario. I truly hope that I'm wrong. But my training and experience tells me that what's done has been done. I'm just suggesting what I beleive can be expected as the result of the damage to the world financial system as the result of the unwillingness of our political representatives to come together and reach agreement on some response to the emergency.

By the way, I just happened to notice the "signature" I've used on e-mails for years. I made it up after spending some very pleasant weeks on a Caribbean island. I hope it doesn't become too appropriate in coming years...

"Give me a place where my biggest problem each day will be...Is there a goat in the road"