Bob, you recieving the e-mails about the comercial construction loans drying up? this is to a new new level in last couple weeks.

I have a brother-in-law that is in that sort of business. He was commenting on the fact that several signed/sealed/delivered deals have gone south. The would have been lenders paid a back-out penalty of some sort and said see ya. Lots of those types have invested in sub-prime derivatives and are wondering which side of the bail out money they will land on.

It will be interesting.

Wall Street banks are bracing for another wave of multibillion-dollar losses as the crisis that began with subprime mortgages spreads through the credit markets.

In recent weeks one part of the debt market after another has buckled. High-risk loans used to finance corporate buyouts have plummeted in value. Securities backed by commercial real estate mortgages and student loans have fallen sharply. Even auction-rate securities, arcane investments usually considered as safe as cash, have stumbled.

The breadth and scale of the declines mean more pain for major banks, which have already written off more than $120 billion of losses stemming from bad mortgage-related investments.

cost of money has not changed much in relation to prime dropping; they make it on the spread. so you pay  a fair price for equipment and pay the price for money, insurance and fuel but the customer is not flush with monies to meet the service rendered so you lose money because the lenders are not passing the savings on to you. wow what a mess, i can only hope for other people to fall out of the business so i can survive.