If you looked at the overseas trading markets versus the US this morning, this was one of those days that could have gone either way. This followed a financial rescue package for Greece, and also followed the biggest gain in US manufacturing in almost six years, that even with a rise in construction spending.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 11,151.83 +143.22 (1.30%)
S&P 500 1,202.26 +15.58 (1.31%)
Nasdaq 2,498.74 +37.55 (1.53%)

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The market has been up all morning and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) has been down. The big cat has been crushed like so many other large industrial companies in the last 18 months, that it probably doesn't know what a good day is.

At the rate they have been slashing payroll and laying off workers in spurts, a good day might be when there is nothing to report.

It will not surprise anyone to learn that I am asked every day by someone where the trillions of dollars in world capital that were here on one day disappeared to on the next. No doubt many of our astute readers are getting the same questions from their friends and associates.

Perhaps some readers out there wonder where $245 billion of Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) capital has gone and why they are surviving by a thread only at the graces of the American taxpayer. (Citi hit 97 cents a share during the day, closing at $1.02.) I will give you an example.

After a week of heavy selling, Wall Street is moving higher today despite news that the Federal Reserve expects to see the economy continue to deteriorate.

In its most recent Beige Book, the Fed noted that the chances of any sort of improvement in the economy looked "poor" in the short term, and that it did not expect to see any sort of recovery start to take place until at least the end of 2009 or perhaps even into 2010.

If we keep hearing about companies that are "too big to fail" what in the world are we doing allowing Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) to swallow up everything in their financial path so that they can become even bigger, potentially creating the next catastrophe!

During my tenure at BloggingStocks I have made some bonehead calls and some that were more astute. Among my better calls was the story I wrote 20 months ago, Break up Citigroup as soon as possible, and the follow on story a year later when nothing had changed: Citigroup should hire forensic auditors. My colleagues Peter Cohan and Douglas McIntyre made similar points.

Given these stories and the dialog I have had with many of our intelligent and equally frustrated readers, I have had thoughts of starting a non-profit organization to shadow the Securities and Exchange Commission that has been dormant for the last ten years. Instead of hiring Wall Street types to run the SEC we might do better hiring inquisitive university students, and not from the business or law schools, but the accounting, journalism and criminology programs.

Last weekend, the U.S. government decided that it would let Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) fail -- leading to history's biggest bankruptcy -- valued at $639 billion. But that was fine because the government said that people knew Lehman was in trouble. Of course, people also knew since August 2007 that Bear Stearns was in trouble, but that didn't stop the government from forking over $29 billion of taxpayer money to bail it out. And people knew for years that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) were in trouble -- but that did not stop the US from pledging between $200 billion and $800 billion to nationalize them.

But this morning, we discover that the government has crossed over the line in the sand it drew over the weekend -- it will loan $85 billion of taxpayer money -- at a variable interest rate starting at 14.5% -- Libor, which doubled yesterday from roughly 3% to 6%, plus 8.5% according to the Wall Street Journal [subscription required] -- to avoid what would have been the $1 trillion bankruptcy of American International Group (NYSE: AIG). In exchange for this two year loan, according to the New York Times, the Fed gets as collateral all the $1 trillion of AIG's assets plus warrants to purchase 80% of AIG stock.

The incompetence of this government is breathtaking. On Sunday, it could have loaned AIG $40 billion to keep its credit rating from getting downgraded. It refused to do so -- trying to force JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) to help raise private financing -- and credit agencies went ahead and downgraded AIG on Monday. Now, instead of a bridge loan which would have tided AIG over until it could sell some assets to raise capital, the government is making a two-year loan that is twice as big. And we, the taxpayers, are likely to own this pile of assets that may be worth far less than the $1 trillion stated on its books. If there's any good news, the stated collateral is more than 10 times the amount of the loan.

Consumers are really going to be feeling the pain next weekend when they hit the road for Memorial Day weekend.

Gasoline prices have risen to yet another new high today, climbing to a national average of $3.73 as the summer driving months are on our doorstep.

Sadly, gasoline prices are showing no signs of cooling, and many analysts have already predicted $4 a gallon by the middle of the summer. At the current pace, $4 gasoline may seem cheap before it is all said and done.

The main reason for the price acceleration is, of course, crude prices. Oil prices have doubled over the past year and sent gasoline prices through the roof. Oil prices are still showing no signs of cooling off either, and are still trading above $125 a barrel. This is causing many analysts to question whether this year we will see the typical gradual decline of oil prices through the summer.

Welcome to the 32nd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week, I looked at a recent article in The Wall Street Journal that suggested Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) era of big retailing was coming to an end. That is, customers are actually tired of the same-ole Wal-Mart, with the same product selections, outdated store formats, and impersonal shopping experiences.

I doubt Wal-Mart is going anywhere anytime soon, but it may just have to be content with the core customer base of 'price is everything' consumers soon unless it wants to win back former customers that have bolted for Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) stores and attract the 'new' customer who wants a custom shopping experience in an attractive environment -- something Wal-Mart is far from providing with its all-are-the-same Supercenter format.