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JJC:    We're constantly seeing stocks go down because someone spread this, someone said that, some rumor on the tape, some guy got on tv and said something bad, some company announces this or that, then another company put out a press release... Uh, but I don't want to get too Simon and Garfunkel on you... What we don't hear discussed that much at all are the stocks that go down on the sounds of silence... Hello, no news flow, my friend. Yeah, that's two... It's too bad, it's too bad... Because right now there are a lot of stocks going down on the sounds of silence...

The banks, the brokers, the homebuilders... The three groups, frankly, that make up the Achilles' heel of this market... They've been falling, not because of anything anyone said, despite stories you might have heard in paper that so and so CEO says this, that there's rumors being spread... Uh, uh... No... I think they're going down because none of the right people are saying anything, nor are they backing anything up with buy backs or anything substantive... I am bringing this up tonight, yes, I am bringing up the financials because at last, these stocks are in rally mode and I am not a pile on guy, I am not a guy who does that kind of stuff where they throw the flags and jumping on and stomping on guys fingers and bodies and stuff... No... See I didn't want to offer up negatives right into a panic... That's not my style... I like to wait... And I have waited... It's taken me forever, but I have waited until we get some uptake in the banks and brokers to take action... Lordy, we got it today... And I bet you'll get a follow through, a follow through to today's explosive action to financials tomorrow...

So you can at last debate their merits and consider what I'm about to say in a positive atmosphere, for once... It's been so clouded and toxic, it reminds me of that little breaststroke competition I once had in the Love Canal... Alright, despite the positive run ups today in the banks and brokers, I believe we could still be facing, I believe we are facing some big financials collapses, and not just the small ones... Not just these little regional banks that you hear about like the Isely brothers, whatever that thing is out there... Don't worry about it, that's an old group... I'm old, alright?... I'm truly worried about the fundamentals of Citigroup, of Bank of America, with what I think will end up being considered an ill-fated acquisition of Countrywide, I am as you know, concerned about the viability of the largest savings and loan, look what a statesman I've become, huh... Well down here I've become a statesman...

When I was out at USC I was telling people to quit work at Washington Mutual before the posse came... But I'm now just saying that I'm concerned, I'm concerned about Washington Mutual... I fret over Wachovia, especially given its incredible decline, lack of permanent CEO... But what do I hear?... I hear nothing... I hear total silence from these companies... Now all I know is that they have unclear losses and unclear balance sheets in an environment where home prices are still deteriorating rapidly... We've got silence from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the true Simon and Garfunkel of the joint... We've got silence from Lehman, other than some squawking that the shorts are at fault... Well, I almost bought that logic... We've got silence from Merrill, except for the occasional sentence, the occasional whiff that they might be selling some bomber or something... And worst of all, we've got silence, more frightening than the silence of the lambs from any of the actors in federal government, who could have taken action and so far haven't... I think our government will need a plan, a definitive plan for when these banks start to fail again, but all I hear about is silence, and silence is deafening... Just a whisper of a plan... How about a vague rumor?... Some slight hint that someone in the government is doing something to avert, or at least deal with what will happen when a couple of giant banks collapse... That's all I think we really need is some assurance, that will give this group and the market some relief so the stocks can go higher and they can issue more equity so they are in less trouble... But right now you could hear a pin drop... Let me be clear... I am no longer ranting and raving about saving the financials like I did in that Stop Trading Segment I did that was such a hit on YouTube... Now, I have come to accept that despite my meltdown, when something could have been done then, the fed did get on the stickle later... But it no longer has control over this bank situation by their own admission... I mean, they've basically told you they're done cutting, which means the die is cast and now I think the real bank failures are around the corner...

Again, I am sensitive to the fact that the stocks are going up right now, so you can take action... I am not a pile on guy, kicking them when they're down, giving them the business, alright?... Right now I'm saying that for things to get better we need to start hearing from the feds about their plan for averting the financial apocalypse, and I don't mean some Sunday night conference call to save Bear Sterns... I don't need anything that's done on the fly, I need something planned... Because I'm afraid, I think the Street is afraid that they have no plan, just like they had no plan when this whole mess started... Or maybe they don't believe in a plan... Maybe they think it's like the potato famine in 1847... That the Irish figured it out themselves... That didn't work... I don't think the banks will be able to do it on their own... There seems to be no way they'll be able to raise all the capitol they need... Who the heck wants to give Lehman or Merrill Lynch another dime, after the beatings that everyone has done and has taken... This is like four times bitten, twice shy... You can only be so stupid... The mutual funds that own these banks have taken horrendous losses and concomitant redemptions... The big outside investors have been crushed, and now they have scrambled eggs on their faces... Make mine sunny side up... For making the stupid decision to invest in these banks, Sovereign Fund Investors, they've been completely pantsed by greedy sales people who told you this is the last injection... I think we need the government to round up the usual buyers right now, if there are any usual ones... We need them to round them up in a cool moment, to be ready to merge with the banks that I believe are going to fail, before everything starts to fall apart in the heated moment that may be coming...

We need to know that there's a short list of willing and ready buyers from around the globe as we had in 1990, the last financial meltdown... We need to know that they're more than just JP Morgan out there that's ready to take a swing... I believe even a whisper of a plan like this would help this market tremendously... You want to know how bad it is?... You want some numbers behind my dire pronouncements?... Okay, I'm ready, make me look stupid again... Alright, presto!... Back on August 3rd, I started a stress index with 12 stocks, roughly representing the homebuilders, the brokers, and the banks... I created the index to give me an idea of just how bad things were in the banking and housing complex... On August 3rd it started at 100... The Mad Money stress index is now at 20... That's an all time low that it hit today, it touched 18 today... Meaning that the stocks in this group have fallen an average of 80% already, and I'm not saying anything about things getting better, other than for this trade that started today... At least not until someone or something breaks the terrible sound of silence that I believe is pulling this group, and with it, the whole market, down... I do not have an answer for this problem, but I'm hoping someone in the government does... Now, I've told you about the bad, I don't want to leave you with the impression that nothing can be done... Not after a decline like this... Alright, did you see Matt Lower do that this morning?... No... Okay, particularly there are outfits like JP Morgan ready to do more buying... We learned that from CEO Jamie Dimond today... That was subtext... I felt when he said that the bear axis? is almost done that he's ready to roll... Now, I actually liked what I heard for the first time in a long time from treasury secretary Hank Paulson, about how important Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are... It made me feel that they're not going to go away entirely... But what we need to hear is that the federal government still stands behind these organizations, and will remain so and give us an explicit guarantee, not the implicit one as long as Americans need homes... Oh, and most importantly, we need to hear the following words from Shelia Behr, from the FDIC or I'll take them from treasury, I'll even take them from under the undercycle belt, I'll take them from Bob Steel... And the words we need to hear, and they don't even have to do it for a biattribution... They can just leak it, okay?... The words we need to hear are "we have large bank buyers who want in, and we have plans for them to be able to contain the losses of the crushed banks they buy". That statement, even if given off the record, somehow, filleted through, it would be big... But my question is, do they have the buyers?... In my view, the problem is nothing is being done, or at least nothing is being talked about... I think of all this, all this could get better... Not fixed, but better, if we heard some word, or some kind of plan from the feds to find buyers to merge with the banks that I believe will fail in the not too distant future...

Oh, and here's one that really just dazzles me... How can both presidential candidates completely ignore this issue?... Do they not know it?... This one, this is the biggest issue facing the American economy... Instead they focus on tax cuts... That didn't work with the last guy... Tax cuts... There's no solution at all... Maybe both of these guys were out to chow... come on guys, don't wait until we on Wall Street blow chow... Come up with plans.

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