We’ve passed a $787 billion stimulus package, we’re about to spend another $350 billion in TARP money, the Obama Administration is promising hundreds of billions for mortgages, and the Big Three are back for more money. How much has this all gotten us? The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a six-year low today.

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks dropped, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a six-year low, as Hewlett-Packard Co. cut its profit forecast and concern about rising credit-card defaults dragged financial shares to the lowest level since 1995…

The S&P 500 slid 1.2 percent to 778.94, extending its 2009 loss to 14 percent in its worst start to a year. The Dow dropped 89.68 points, or 1.2 percent, to 7,465.95, the lowest since October 2002. The Russell 2000 Index declined 1.5 percent…

The S&P 500 fell for a third day yesterday as the Federal Reserve cut its forecast for the U.S. economy this year, while government reports showed industrial production shrank more than forecast and housing starts slid to a record low last month.

Say, what are investors so cautious about?

The prospect that the federal government will nationalize some banks, rendering their equity worthless, is dogging Bank of America and Citigroup in particular, said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors Corp. in Rochester, New York…

Investors are “afraid the government’s going to wipe out everybody that’s got an interest,” Schutz said. “Nobody knows what the rule book is. In the meantime, the stocks are getting destroyed.” Mendon manages $150 million in financial stocks, including the two best-performing bank-stock mutual funds over the past three years.

So by all means, let’s nationalize the banks. Let’s see if we can get the Dow down to 5,000 or 3,000 points. The sheer prosect of that seems to be working so well on Wall Street.

Via Hot Air Headlines.