In the face of one of the most dramatic money crises that the United States has ever faced, the Dow Industrial still closed 141.51 points above yesterday.

All weekend we have heard rumors that AIG will join Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the long line of moneylenders and investment firms that are both filing for bankruptcy and begging for federal bailout.

“All of the financials are in complete disarray. There is a tremendous amount of nervousness, which is breeding volatility,” said Anthony Conroy, head trader at BNY ConvergEx.

Fox News Reports:

“With the clock ticking on AIG, reports swirled of a possible government rescue of the world’s largest insurer. Bloomberg reported late Tuesday the Federal Reserve is considering a “loan package.” AIG was also boosted after new SEC filings showed its former CEO, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, is considering a proxy fight for his old company. ”

“No bailout plan was announced before the end of trading and the Treasury Department has not officially changed its plans, leaving AIG in the same predicament it started the day in. Late Monday AIG suffered a major setback when major ratings agencies downgraded the insurer’s credit ratings, making it increasingly difficult to raise cash.”

AIG has officially filed for federal loans and support in this time, and have so far been denied. They claim to have a better case for bailout than either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, as their troubles stem not from over extending loans, but from the massive down turn in the economy.

Yesterday, former head of the FED Alan Greenspan referred to this as a “Once a century monetary crisis” further fueling the comparisons to the great depression that began in 1929.

“The enormous swings in the stock market reflect the level of concern and confusion on Wall Street about AIG. Various reports indicated if AIG didn’t raise new capital — it is reportedly seeking $70 billion to $75 billion — it would be forced to follow in the footsteps of Lehman Brothers by filing for bankruptcy.”

In it’s first unamyous decision in over a year, the Federal reserve has voted to freeze interest rates. As well as mandate that the Federal Funds Rate not change from it’s current 2%.

In one ray of bright light for the fininacials in trouble, the British bank Barclay’s has entered into an agreement with embattled Lehman Brothers to purchase control of their U.S. capitals market business, giving the giant some much needed capital. There is debate as to whether it will be enough.

From Market Watch:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Lately, whenever the market has a bad day, the reflex among financial-news editors is to compare our current situation with 1987 and wonder if a “Black Monday”-style crash is on the horizon.

But some observers draw a darker metaphor, noting that much of what we are seeing now also took place in 1929. As we know, that meltdown — unlike the 1987 crash — was not followed by a happy ending, but rather by a decade of poverty, shantytowns and sporadic famine.

Popular imagination has the Great Depression opening with a bang in October 1929. We forget that even by December of that year, the market had no idea what was really in store. After a period of wild, bipolar volatility, stocks had taken two big tumbles (a 12.8% drop on Oct. 28 and an 11.7% fall the next day) while the top bankers and “captains of industry” rushed to shore up the market. By November, the Dow had hit its low for the year at 198, down from the giddy September high of 381.

But, the financial pundits and government leaders of the day insisted, the economy’s fundamentals were still strong. Mass unemployment was, some months after the crash, still just something that went on in Germany and Britain. America was strong and merely needed a push to keep the financial markets from harming the broader economy.

With that in mind, Herbert Hoover — only nine months into his presidency — assembled leaders from the public and private sectors to create an economic-stimulus package. Among the measures, Time magazine reported at the time, was a promise from Congress to offer bipartisan support for a tax-cut package. The proposal called for $160 million in tax relief — only about $22 billion if adjusted against the gross domestic product at the time, and therefore much smaller than the plan under consideration here in 2008. Read Time’s original coverage of the plan.
Also on the table was an assurance from the Federal Reserve that it would provide cheaper credit. Granted, the Fed had much less power over the money supply in those days, mainly because the amount of liquidity it could create was limited by the supply of gold it held to back the dollar.

Of course, there were a litany of public-works projects, plans for new corporate investments, and even a promise by Henry Ford to raise wages at his auto plants.

None of this worked. What was first seen as speed bump to the expansion of American finance became something much larger. The Dow continued falling, hitting 157 in 1930, 73 in 1931 and finally a mere 41 points in 1932. It did not reach its 1929 high again until 1954, a generation later.

Certainly, our economy now has far more differences than similarities with the economy of 1929, and few expect a new depression for the decade ahead. But it’s also worth remembering that the best laid plans of presidents, chief executives and senators can sometimes come to nothing.