Pack your bags, folks - “There’s no more Wall Street.” That’s the damning verdict from Alan Greenberg, former CEO of The Bear Stearns Cos. Speaking on Bloomberg TV’s “Money and Politics” show, Greenberg declared that the existing Wall Street investment-banking model is dead.

I’m not sure about death, but the broader U.S. economy is like a 2:00 A.M. drunk, continuing to stumble towards the end of a mind-altering 2008, with little long-term relief in sight. Will it ever find its way home again?

One of President-elect Barack Obama’s most ambitious and large-scale plans quite literally seeks to dig America out of this mess – and here’s how you can profit, too. But you’d better act fast. Some of Wall Street’s big boys are already placing their bets.

Obama will take the oath as 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20.

Since his Nov. 4 victory, the

DOW Chemical Cuts Back on Almost Everything

This morning, stocks jumped almost 3% after President-elect Obama pledged the largest spending increases on domestic infrastructure since President Dwight Eisenhower created the national highway system.

It’s been rumored for weeks that Obama would make “New Deal” type investments in our nation’s energy and power arteries. Adding state infrastructure projects onto the list makes sense. It also makes mining and chemical companies very happy. And they’ve needed some good news.

The largest U.S. chemical producer, Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW), announced it would trim almost 11% of its workforce, close 20 plants and idle 180 more. It follows 3M (NYSE: MMM) and DuPont (NYSE: DD), which have both announced layoffs and cutbacks in recent days.

The plastics and rubber chemical sector has lost almost 40% this year - about the same as the S&P 500 (.INX). But

How many economic-advice-giving organizations does it take to run a White House?

MarketWatch reports:

President-elect Barack Obama tapped former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to run a new White House advisory board tasked with offering independent advice about how to stage an economic recovery. Obama named the 81-year-old Volcker to head the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board....

The board is modeled on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board that gave President Dwight Eisenhower independent opinions on intelligence issues. Austan Goolsbee, another key Obama adviser, will serve as the economic board's staff director and chief economist.

Volcker can be single-handedly credited with ending the great inflation of the 1970s, and has been critical of the unorthodox steps that Fed Chair Ben Bernanke has taken to address our current challenges. Although I share some of Volcker's concerns, it is not clear to me what specifically Volcker would propose to do instead.

The US consumer is on life support. Retail sales cratered in September, and consumer confidence indexes are at rock bottom. Uncle Sam is gearing up for a new New Deal to resuscitate the patient, says Justice Litle. It will focus on alternative energy projects… and could create the next big bubble.

This from Taipain Daily:

For the last 25 years, Soros observes, the “motor of the world economy” has been the American consumer. And not only has the American consumer been aggressively consuming, he “has been spending more than he has been saving.”

“So that motor is now switched off,” says Soros. “It’s finished. It’s run out of — can’t continue. You need a new motor.”

The declines of that truly awful week when the Dow lost 18% were tied to the credit crisis. Before governments across the globe stepped up, there was a fear that nothing would