There was an article in the London Times on Friday that talked about the fact the the Fed bailouts will make private sector investors run a mile from any institution that requires capital.

The reason being that the shareholders always get wiped out in the bail out (and rightly so). What Arab or Asian entity is going to bail a US bank when they know that things are going to get worse and they will need even more capital hence will enventually get bailed and they'll get wiped out?

The logical conclusion being that the US taxpayer, and those in Europe and the UK, are going to have to bail ALL the institutions, i.e. effectively nationalise the entire financial system (or the bits in the shite in any case).

This is going to trigger a total loss of confidence in the US Dollar as reserve currency and that will send gold to the moon (IMHO).