Look Out! It`s Friday, Global Markets Are Tanking, Where`s The U.S. Headed?

U.S. stock futures are off considerably, global markets are tanking, and it's Friday. None of this bodes well for the opening of the US markets. Brace yourself, it looks like the markets will be rockin' and rollin' today.

"European markets got off to a terrible start. Within the first 10 minutes of trading, London's FTSE, the CAC in Paris and the XETRA DAX in Frankfurt, Germany, had all sloughed off about 10% of their values ......

Asian markets ended lower. The Nikkei Exchange in Japan closed down 9.6%.

Meanwhile, the Australian All Ordinaries index closed more than 8% lower and South Korea's KOSPI index finished the day off 4.3%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down about 8% in afternoon trading and Mumbai's BSE SENSEX was down 7.4%." - Money.Cnn.Com

The Bailout, Real Estate ... An Uncertain Future?

Today the House agreed to the new bailout bill, 263 Democrats to 171 Republicans. The government tells us that the intent for this bill is to help liquidate a frozen credit market.

The current credit markets are so tight that some business owners are now struggling to obtain financing for simply keeping their businesses afloat let alone business expansion.

Ben Bernanke said "the legislation is a critical step toward stabilizing our financial markets and ensuring an uninterrupted flow of credit to households and businesses."

The said result, foreclosures should begin to subside since we should be able to obtain loans again as banks begin lending with new confidence as the government soaks up their bad debt. As loans become more available, it is believed that there is a pent-up demand for housing and Americans will begin to purchase residential real estate again at their current bargain basement prices in many housing markets. As we begin to purchase more homes, the inventory will subside and prices should begin to stabilize before the demand and shrinking inventories ultimately begin to put upward pressure on housing prices.

Time will only tell if these favored results will actually begin to positively affect our housing market. Unfortunately, this bill is laden with nearly $150 Billion in "pork" legislation and does not address many of the issues that ultimately lead us to this point.

We must demand more of our government but can begin by demanding more from ourselves ... if there ever was a time to pay attention!