Denial

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who is one of the more honest and perceptive of the financial journalists, says today that the big problem has been denial, a refusal by the big investment firms to admit that their securities that are based on a shrinking housing bubble are not worth very much. Hence their massive indebtedness and bankruptcy.

What's happens today may hinge on what the Feds do with interest rates and on what happens to AIG, a huge financial company that few people have ever heard of before.