Not many people in the US know what Fortis and Bradford & Bingley's are. But, they should learn the companies' names and their situations. They are a microcosm of why the US bailout is limited and may do little to bring stability to the world's financial and credit markets, at least short-term.

Fortis is one of the the largest financial companies in Europe. Bradford & Bingley's is a major mortgage company in the UK.

According to Bloomberg, Fortis "received an 11.2 billion-euro ($16.3 billion) rescue from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg after investor confidence in the bank evaporated " Bradford & Bingley's "the U.K.'s biggest lender to landlords, was seized by the government."

While it is easy to say that the firms are based far from the US and their failures do not hurt US individual investors, they do have business transactions with US companies which may further weaken American bank balance sheets.

The most important aspects of the collapse of the two companies is that, if the credit markets around the world were actually going to be unlock by US legislation, then where was the capital to save these two companies? Why didn't the governments wait to see if private capital could be freed up to save the two firms? Is the financial system around the world so severely damaged that nothing will make it right for months and perhaps a year or two?

At first blush, the answers to all of these questions is that the $700 billion may make a dent in an American problem, but the global problem is so great that it cannot be controlled. The Treasury effort has become a small fish in a big pond.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.