The image says it all. I’d like to think that after 35 years of being involved with markets that I’d seen it all, but today is one for the record books.

We start out the day with “men at work” from Bernanke to Paulson. They’re an interesting pair that’s for sure. But, talk will only get you so far. Given the condition of FNM and FRE combined with Paulson’s breezy attitude you’d be right to assume that these firms will, for all practical purposes, be nationalized. Another bite in your wallet and a brush-off to Moral Hazard concerns.

Oil was up around a dollar while stocks were struggling higher most of the day. Then, out of the blue, oil shot up $3 and stocks started to cave. At their nadir indexes were sharply in the red as oil …