Don't Panic

These must be great times for people who love the sensation of "schadenfreude". Oh how the high and mighty have fallen. The sad fact of the matter is that most of the high and mighty aren't really going to feel that much pain from all of this. OK, so maybe they'll have to wait to buy that second BMW for a couple of years. But the effects will actually hit the rest of us pretty damn hard. But there's no reason for us to panic. This is far from the end of the world. It might mean the end of fat bonuses for some people for a few years. But then again the real lesson of a downturn is who can survive it. That shows the real winners. It's easy to play the market when everything is going up - it takes a real genius to make money in a downturn. So here's a good lesson for the next cycle.

If there's only one thing you take away from the Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), and AIG (NYSE: AIG) stories of the past few days, let it be this:

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

That simple lesson can save you a lot of heartache. It'll also save you a lot of money.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/09/16/the-lesson-we-can-learn-from-lehman.aspx