Well, it’s been just about a month and a half now that markets have really been in the nosedive.  Maybe slightly more.  It really started to dive maybe just by the end of September.  October was the worst month on record (for several measures) since the post-war (WW2) period.  But November hasn’t really been much better, even though there haven’t been any new financial scandals - just this auto bailout business.

But ever since yesterday it seems we’re on a new roll-down again.  Here’s what I’ve learned. Just about all of this comes from BNN reports - they interview key players in the industry on a daily basis:

(1) Canada’s Royal Bank is almost two-thirds the size of US Citigroup (compare market caps of about 55 billion to only about 35 billion (and the latter might actually be closer to 25 billion).
(2) October was actually a deflationary month.  That’s right.  No inflation in October, but actual deflation.
(3) Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia and TD are starting to make writedowns on bad debt… others might follow them…
(4) Oil’s under $50/barrell now…. serious stuff.
(5) Citibank fell below $5.00 today.  That’s insane.  They say it’s looking to go to zero… I bought in around $18.00 and I’m glad I didn’t buy more at $9.00…. I’ll keep waiting at this point.
(6) Teck Cominco in Canada is cutting its dividend.  Could be the first of many.

Basically, we pretty much really are in freefall… the early November rallies were comforting, and some of the aid packages probably have helped a great deal, but I guess overall there is still too much uncertainty and too many hedge funds still making redemptions.  (Saturdays are redemption days).  November is also historically known as the time when tax-loss selling for the year begins, so we’re probably seeing some of that, too… I really doubt holiday spending is going to improve anything.  I think not much is going to improve until February, once markets start getting used to Obama in the House, and maybe once one of the auto companies finally goes bankrupt.  Kick out those old white guys who still flew in private jets to the Congress meeting today.  They should be ashamed.