The U.S. economy is battling the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, and now the meltdown on Wall Street may be averted with further actions by the Fed. But the meltdown on Main Street may just be beginning.

Deregulation triggered the U.S. Savings and Loan Fraud Crisis in the late 1980's. But it seems we didn't learn from history. Deregulation of the financial markets and mortgage lenders has caused the economic melt down.

Investment banks and other lenders have no way to determine the extent of the crisis since their risk-management models do not take unprecedented events like the nation is currently experiencing into account. As a consequence, the banks have not only been caught off guard, but have been amazed at the speed at which the crisis is accelerating.

The facts are facts. We know new investment vehicles (SIV's) were developed to trade new emerging securities in the investment markets like pork bellies on Wall Street, lenders took liberties with liar loans, making them to anyone who could sign their name and that the real estate boom was caused by artificial appreciation manipulated by newly developed creative financing that went outside the bounds of any common sense.

Some people made millions of dollars, and other investors in financials and real estate did pretty well during the boom. But the boom's last gasp is close to over just about every where ? even Hawaii.

Millions of Americans are being thrown out of their homes due to foreclosure. The crisis is making huge inroads into the nation's economy. Since the economic crisis started more than 2 million homes and other properties have been foreclosed.

The $200-billion infusion into the nation's money markets and other Fed actions are a long time consuming, arduous process. The crisis is dragging down the national economy, and the rest of the world's financial markets, which have been thrown out of balance since the crisis blew up more than a year ago.

Sill, there are those that will benefit from the crisis, investing in real estate and financial instruments at the right time to share in big profits. The majority of Americans will not because of the nation's ?pack mentality,? the sense that when things are bad it's bad for everyone.

Grocery prices are spiraling out of control. Anyone who eats knows that. Gasoline and commodity prices are edging upward. It's hitting us all in the wallet. Inflation is a huge issue.

When will it get better, you ask? Sometime after it all works through the Fed. Whether or not Americans want a full scale bail out isn't the issue anymore. It's simply a question of how long it will be before the Fed feels it has to pull the lever. It seems we need to gag that cough medicine down.