IndyMac, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac

So FreddieMac and Fannie Mae watch their shares plummet causing a run on the IndyMac bank that in turn has forced it to be taken over by the regulators.

Gee who could have predicted that after the Northern Rock etc. debacle the next domino to start to topple would the guarantors of the mortgages.. oh wait

We are also waiting for the next big shockwave in the sales of guarantees as companies heavily invested in the sub-prime market were underwriting said guarantees.

nope came completely out the blue.

So the important question how does this affect us? Well the FTSE dropped like a stone, all the banks are really going to want to build their nest-eggs up even more and sit on them so we'll have less money greasing through the system, and we may see the dollar dip and that'll cause an increase in oil prices.

We've had analysts telling us we've switch from a bull to a bear market with much money-babble about the difference. In simple terms it's easy to explain - if you have more buyers then sellers it's a bull market; if you have more seller then buyers it's a bear market. In other words if you have more buyers then you can name your own price; take it or leave it, plenty of other people around, snap it up now. If you have more sellers then you're going to have problems offloading your shares; make me a better offer, I can get it cheaper off someone else.

So shares are dropping, for anyone who has a share-invested pension plan coming to maturity this is not good news. Companies are going to start cutting down and be unable to get loans. People will start saving rather then buying and the money will be pulled off the High Street.

All in all not good.