No do-overs on Wall Street

Nothing bores me more than the economy, but here I am having an opinion about it anyway.

Sifting through the blah blah blah and Dow Jones Industrial this and that in the stories about the Wall Street crisis, I was surprised to find that I actually experienced a genuine emotion: annoyance.

First, some background for others who tune out at any mention of the stock market. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 504 points. This is bad. In fact, it hasn't been this bad since the day after the Sept. 11 attacks. Before that, Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection -- and they're the largest company to ever do so.

So I was reading the Los Angeles Times' coverage, and it was this little part here that melted the glaze from my eyes:

"[T]he selling in the stock market accelerated after [Treasury Secretary Henry M.] Paulson's remarks, which seemed designed to reassure investors but also make clear that the government had no plans for further intervention in the troubled financial system.

'We're working through a difficult period in our financial markets right now as we work off some of the past excesses,' Paulson told reporters at the White House. 'But the American people can remain confident in the soundness and the resilience of our financial system.'

The Treasury chief also said that he 'never once considered that it was appropriate to put taxpayer money on the line in resolving Lehman Bros.'"

So, basically, you're telling me that investors are upset because the government isn't going to make the boo-boo all better?

I have an extremely limited knowledge of the process here, but doesn't investing sometimes come with a little risk? A little gambling, even?

Lehman Bros. is a business like any other, and sometimes businesses fail. And being on the wrong end of a bad investment isn't ideal, but it's all a part of playing the game.