A few headlines of note...During the last quarter household net worth lost nearly $2 trillion. Add in concerns about jobs it is easy to see why spending by consumers is falling quickly. Millennium Global Investments was rumored to be liquidating a hedge fund that concentrated in emerging markets. Several projections indicate that 700 hedge funds will close down by the end of the year. One reason is they are so far from their high watermarks, it is not feasible for them to continue to stay in business to earn back their losses, even if their investors are willing to stay invested with them. They are likely to spend the next few years attempting to just get back to even. Getting back to even does not earn them any performance fee's and thus many are closing shop.