It's been a wild ride in the markets today from anyone's perspective; most notably the equities meltdown on Wall Street thanks to the panic surrounding the failure of Lehman Bros. and the potential failure of the insurance giant AIG. Speculation is raging with the "too big to fail" mentality so my question is "Why is the Fed involved?" Trader's note that almost lost in the day's action is Oil dropping below the psychological $100/BBL price level to finish the day in the $95 handle.

The USD fell sharply overnight driven lower by continuing market turmoil and uncertainty in global financial markets; main story is the filing for bankruptcy protection by Lehman Brothers adding more fuel to the fear of a market meltdown. Although BoA has agreed to purchase the troubled brokerage firm traders don't see the issue as resolved due to the large exposure other firms have to both Lehman stock and counterparty transactions.