Some sensible things are starting to happen.

Stock prices are down, so Nike, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft today are launching stock buyback programs, for a combined total of $53 billion.

That's normal behavior. Buy low kind of stuff.

We haven't seen normal in so long, it's rather exciting.

Without knowing the details, my initial impression of Goldman and Morgan Stanley becoming banks is good. The Federal Reserve would regulate their holding companies.

It does not mean that extraordinary risk-taking below the holding-company level wouldn't happen. But it might mean that when the upper echelon becomes involved in extraordinary risk-taking, regulators would become aware. And their reactions would have great weight in whether these activities would be allowed to continue.

For quite some time to come, the notion of risk and how to avoid it will predominate.

And someone, even if it's not the CEO or the board, will be demanding transparency from inside large financial institutions.

How stock and bond markets react to those two trends is what I'm wondering about. Will we see a bunch of petulant traders, pushing stocks down? Or will conservative investments become the vogue?

Because of course people are asking today, where should I put my money now? Housing's bust. Stocks are bust. Where?

I'm happy to hear from anyone who'd like to comment.