end of the quarter.

Finally, a word on the world of hurt known as the financial arena. "It's about to blow" is how a friend I've dubbed the "Lord of the Dark Matter" began a call to me last week. Behind the scenes, many parts of the credit/mortgage market were "offered only," with no buyers in sight for troubled loans. My friend said the problem had nothing to do with the end of the month or the end of the quarter. Instead, he believed it had to do with the enormous amount of inventory that would be looking for a home in the next quarter. He said the equity market was "miles behind what was occurring in the mortgage-backed/credit markets." Though he noted that he'd said it before, he repeated: "It's never been this bad."