What's holding the American Markets up???! Look at the current FACTS:

The dollar is the weakest in decades, significant credit problems are bombing major banks, oil is around $95 predicting a major gasoline price increase soon, home foreclosure numbers are bad and growing, housing is literally frozen and falling, grocery and energy prices are soaring with electricity and natural gas expected to go up 15-20% this winter, the huge illegal alien problem remains, medical costs are jumping, and manufacturing jobs continue to go overseas...

and we have a $12 BILLION A MONTH war full of corruption that we can't seem to win.

At some point shareholders have to wonder what Robert Rubin does for his $25+ million salary. It's clear that he is excellent at dodging bullets by staying out of harm's way (every article seems to mention that he doesn't want to have anything to do with "operations"). But he certainly shares in the responsiblity for the calamity that has befallen the company. He obviously needs to move his ivory tower closer to the action and climb down once in a while to ask what the h*** is going on. They need the wisdom he gained from GS and the treasury department. Where was he when all of these foolish investment decisions were made? Is he brought in only for board meetings and "glad handing" important clients? If he was the last to know about all of this, what does that say about his role at Citi? For $25 million, investors deserve more accountability and investment savvy. These corporate "superstars" should also share in the financial pain and not be compensated for running the bank into the ground. Finally, how can anyone invest wisely when corporations are in the hands of people whose priority is their own compensation (which seems to be protected from any rational performance measures). Maybe if their own skin was in the game, they wouldn't be so eager to roll the dice.

The other shoe that is yet to drop will be the SIV's. At some point they're going to be forced to account for them. You think Citi would've learned a thing or two from the Enron debacle but that doesn't seem to be the case. Sadly, the Federal Reseve is afraid of Wall Street. The investment banks should've been forced to deal directlywith liquidity problems and not thrown an economic lifeline. By saving LTCM in the past and the big banks today we're only delaying the day of reckoning. Don't touch the interest rates again. Grow a set. Where is Paul Volker when we need him?

Beltway Greg

And awarded with fantastic sums of ill-gotten $$$ for scamming decent hard working investors. It's an outrage and downright despicable; further, these big fat slobs and their [respective] corporations ought to be held accountable for killing our country's middle-class and particularly, those further down the scale! Have a Merry Christmas.

"MONEY is a CANCER of the SOUL."