After such a crazy week in our markets you are entitled to ask a simple question: What in hell is going on?

We need a book to answer that fully. I will try to answer a few smaller queries.

Who is to blame for the mess? To blame Bush is silly. Those who do are usually trying to win votes. Or they just like to barbeque scapegoats.

Seems to me a more likely scapegoat is Congress of several years ago. It forced banks to lend money to anybody whose pulse reached 20. This opened the doors for abuses by lenders and borrowers. And this led to the housing bubble and credit crash. (The Fed made some unwise moves in this too, making credit too available.) The housing and credit crash have brought the downfall of some mighty houses.

How about greed? Sure. It played a role. But that critter always lurks outside the door. In this instance, Congress swung open the door and set out some bait.

So, what is government doing? Every other headline speaks of massive bailouts and takeovers.

Government is taking over some entities, like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They were government operations to begin with. Government clearly does not want to hold onto them forever. It will likely break them into smaller pieces and float them back to the public.

Government hardly wants to run AIG, the big insurance company. The Fed loaned money to it to keep it from crashing and spreading turmoil to other firms. Good chance it will sell off parts of it in an orderly fashion.