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Much has been made of the SocGen blow-up and the trader who overstepped his authority to cause a $7.2 billion loss by betting all of the bank's capital. This is increasingly looking like the story of a 30 year-old low-level trader who just kept raising the ante in order to gain recognition.

The sub-prime crisis and the credit crunch are about the failure of a lending system creating by Wall Street. Instead of banks keeping loans on their balance sheets, they pooled them and sold them off in the form of bonds and other securitized investments. Banks can only lend based on the amount of equity (deposits, cash, etc.) they have on their balance sheet. By removing the loans from their balance sheet, they created more space to do more lending. This phenomena has ended.

One United, the bank with the highest rate on the BestCashCow savings rate table is now also offering customers $50 cash when they open an account and do on the following: - set up a new recurring direct deposit, or - make recurring purchases with your Visa Debit card The offer is good until June 30, 2008. We don't know how long One United will maintain its high rate.

While Merck and Schering Plough have already fallen hard, they should both continue to fall for the forseeable future

You know, that almost every credit card issuer offers plastics for students. What are student credit cards? What are terms and conditions of applying for these? Read this article to know more!

Apple's immediate prognosis is scary, and I'm inclined to wait until it gets much lower.

It is quickly becoming an American pastime to bash Bernanke, but I think that he is acting responsibly.

Only time will tell whether he is guilty of securities fraud. But, the reality is that someone needs to be held responsible and this guy has set himself in the right space for it.

Ignore the media hype. This entire nominating process is over. It is now time to focus on the global economic meltdown and on football.

The Street journalist Doug Kass (he's also the founder and president of Seabreeze Partners Management, Inc.) says that financials are cheap and poised to rebound. He may be right but I'm not going close to them. I'm not convinced things aren't going to get worse before they get better.

Merck and Schering Plough has finally released the ENHANCE trial. The results were bad- and the cover up was worse. Look out for falling stocks. Timber....

Bank of America's acquisition of Countrywide is a good acquisition for the latter's employees (and for those who bought the latter's stock two days ago). It also stops the knock-on effects of the mortgage meltdown. But, it is potential disaster for Bank of America.