A tale of them and us...

...in one easy lesson.

1. AP reported on Monday that

[m]arkets in Asia, Europe and Latin America all rallied, inspired by the fall in interbank lending rates after governments and central banks in past weeks have cut interest rates while injecting huge sums of cash into battered banks and financial companies.

2. ABC News reported on Tuesday that

[b]ack in March, Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com, said that only five states were in recession: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

Now, he said that 27 states are in recession and another 14 are near recession. ...

"In the past, in recessions, you saw people moving from areas that were hard hit, to areas that were holding up better, looking for jobs and better incomes," he said. "Now, there is nowhere to go."

That concludes today's lesson.

Footnote: Okay, maybe the lesson isn't quite that simple. From the BBC:

Asian stocks fell heavily on Wednesday following data from the US which renewed fears that the world's largest economy is heading for a recession.

Japan's Nikkei index was down 6%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 2.9% and Korea's main share index dropped 5%.

The fundamental point that the banks are being propped up while we have "nowhere to go" remains. But I do have to admit it's not like the haves can breeze along totally unaffected by the state of the have-nots. As much as they'd like to.