Woke up this morning to BIG news in the financial arena.

One of the oldest and largest financial firms, Lehman Brothers, is going under.  Calling in their employees last night to come and clean out their desks.

So, news of yet another firm going down under the weight of it's own excesses and greed is NOT big news these days.  Well, it's nothing new anyway as that seems to be the trend at least for the moment.  It certainly isn't good news for their employees.  Early word has it that investors will be safe and able to transfer all of their funds into other investments.  And the now too common rally cry of "all investments are protected by the FDIC up to $100,000" is also resounding through the hallowed halls of Wall Street.

What makes this particular failure big news?  Not to mention giving reason to hope?  Because the US government told Lehman "No".  We're not going to bail you out.  We're not going to save you from your self inflicted demise.  No more salvaging your mansions and fine clothes at the taxpayer's expense.  These same taxpayers who have lost all of their homes due to your unbridled greed.  Wow!  The filthy rich said no to the filthy rich.  This is a huge day in this country's stuggle to keep it's head above the rising tide of inflation.  Yes, it's going to be tough for some as a result.  The little guy employee of the firm is now on the job market that probably has little or no use for financial experts right now.  There will be some bargains to be had in The Hamptons too I'm sure.  But the real impact here is that the Feds aren't, at least in this instance, going to print some extra monopoly money to come to the rescue whereby devaluing the worthless dollar even more.  Wow!

Dare we breathe yet?