Two Points

You can try and put lipstick on the economic pig that is out there. You can dismiss the significance of the massive losses on Wall Street but there are a few screaming warning signs that tell the story. We won't know for a few months the complete story on how badly mismanaged the US economy has been during the Greenspan/Bush reign but here are a couple of hints.

While the company has been in business for 72 years, Morgan Stanley posts first ever quarterly loss.
Even during the Great Depression they did not report a loss but Bear Stearns has reported its first ever loss in 84 years.

These are harbingers of things to come. It is going to get nasty.