Let me clarify one point for you. This isn't about Wall Street vs. Main Street, and shame on Barack Obama and John McCain for framing it that way. At this point, Wall Street investors are victims of this crisis just like the rest of us. This is about fucked-up financial instruments that are so complex and so removed from their source that financial institutions had to hire teams of physicists and mathematicians to understand what was going on. And when those experts threw up their hands and said, "Sorry--we're lost," the entire credit market stalled out and hit a brick wall. Because these banks literally couldn't determine the value of the assets they were holding. No one can.

If you're a businessperson, frozen credit markets are death. Literally. It means that, for most businesses (particularly small businesses), in 60-90 days there's a better than 50% chance you'll be out of business. Because 60-90 days is the cash cushion most small businesses can afford to allow themselves. Beyond that, if you're successful, you're in deep trouble. And ironically, the more successful you are the more at risk you are.

Imagine you own a small business that installs, let's say, kitchen cabinets. You're rolling along, doing just fine when suddenly you land a few really big accounts. The problem is, you haven't been paid yet for the jobs you've billed over the last 30-60 days. If everyone pays on time (which they won't), you'll have enough of a cash cushion to pay your employees and cover your business expenses for another month or two. But that won't help because you need thousands more to hire more workers and purchase more supplies in order to handle the business you've just picked up. In short, whether you're prepared to or not, you need to expand. But no problem, right? You just borrow 50 or 60 grand from your bank to cover your expenses until the money comes in from the jobs you've already completed. Except that in the meantime, your bank has tightened their lending policies and raised their interest rates because of the crisis in the credit markets and because they're just as cash-strapped as you are because no one will lend them any money. And they won't lend to you because they're in trouble and you're now considered a risky borrower. So you hit a few other banks and they tell you the same thing. So what do you do? You run out of cash. And the day your business runs out of cash, that's the day your business is out of business. Period. It's really as simple as that.

On the day Lehman Brothers failed, 15,000 employees were turned out onto the streets. And they're not going to find jobs on Wall Street because there are no new jobs. So they'll move back to Massachusetts and Connecticut and Colorado and wherever and they'll try to sell their condos in NYC and no one will buy them because no one can afford to pay what they need to get. And in the meantime, thousands of small businesses all over the country will fail and the banks that helped keep them in business will fail as well. And YOU, my clueless friend, may very well be one of those who loses his job. And all your principled, idealistic stick-to-your-guns stubbornness won't change a thing. And when the economy finally crashes and you're unemployed and dozen eggs sells for 10 bucks at the grocery store, suddenly the stupidity of what you posted today will become glaringly obvious.

Get a clue.