One wide ranging topic thread went roughly like this. "Will the real Ben Bernanke please stand up! Does anyone have read on what Ben Bernanke is all about? Is he really serious about fighting inflation and loose credit or is he in reality a cagey poker player?"

"Based on my read of the FOMC statement, the Fed is starting to get nervous about further rate increases. Am I mis-interpreting? How will all this affect housing? Are (short term) rates high enough to deflate the bubble?"

One reader said, "Rates are and have been high enough for a while to burst this bubble. People cannot afford the houses they're in, and you won’t believe the calls we’ve been recieving lately from stressed out borrowers. Last week I suggested the topic of reviewing the 'basics' that show the evidence is overwhelming that we are in for historic correction. Let’s break this thing down this weekend, folks. I think that most of us could use a little refresher, and for those that might find this blog over the weekend, perhaps an eye-opener."

Another had this, "Obviously, the international community has no respect for the Fed’s ability to control inflation. The dollar is tanking, gold is up over 3% and will continue to rise. The Fed is well aware that inflation is currently running at 7%."

"Inflationary pressures have been ignored for a very long time because they did not make it through to the government’s 'core inflation' statistics. The Fed relied on globalization to contain inflation."

"And just to refresh all you youngsters memories: 'We have seen security prices soar out of sight of earnings, brokers’ loans swell till they absorb a third of the banking resources of the country, and the blind pools of ancient days return and multiply by endless crossing and pyramiding as the investment trusts of today. Banks merge and emerge in chains, trailing trusts and holding companies, while industrial corporations pay dividends not by producing goods but by buying each others’ stocks and by borrowing and lending everybody’s money in the market.'"

"'But of all these things can anyone say with surety what they signify, whether they are safe and sound, or what they are leading to? We do not even know, or cannot agree, whether inflation exists, what it means, or how it shall be measured.'"

"'In face of the ignorance, uncertainty, and irrationality that surround every aspect of the 'new era,' it were wisdom for business to keep its feet firmly on the ground and assume for the present that the principles that prevailed through the long business past still govern the stability and success of business today.'"

Business Week - September 7, 1929

"IMHO this is the beginning of the World Wide Asset Bubble collapse. In fact the more interesting action will be next week with the quarterly redemption numbers from the Hedge funds released. Yesterdays and todays stock market action is quarterly adjustment of portfolios."

Another added, "IMHO the World Wide Asset Bubble collapse began on October 19, 1987, but capitulation was successfully forestalled for 19 years by the world’s greatest bubble blower."

To which was replied, "1987 was just the beginning. Many things developed since then not due to AG, but because of other macroeconomic, regulatory, and geopolitical reasons."

"Don’t blame everything on AG. AG didn’t create derivative explosion, nor the dot-coms, he didn’t open sweatshops in Asia and Latin America, he didn’t destroy the USSR, didn’t deregulate the S&L and junk bonds, didn’t drop dollar."

"He is a product of the Friedman’s monetarism, actually we all are, since we put so much naive faith in the Fed’s ability to govern the ecomony with one crude hammer of interest rates. We are all to blame."