LARRY KUDLOW: “The power outage in banking and credit markets continues to deepen as the sub-prime mortgage infection spreads throughout the U.S. and the global financial system.”

I told somebody the other day that if Kudlow ever started sounding gloomy I was going to liquidate my portfolio and turn it into canned goods and shotgun shells. He’s not sounding gloomy yet — but he is sounding kind of worried.

UPDATE: John Coumarianos emails: “All Wall Streeters are screaming bloody murder to induce Bernanke to drop rates. That’s the kind of relationship they had with Greenspan, and they’re testing Bernanke now to see what they can get from him.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader George Zachar emails:

I’m the Park Ave/Hedge fund guy who’s corresponded with you in the past.

It’s true that some Street crybabies are testing Bernanke to see if he’ll blink and elevate the level of moral hazard in the financial markets. But it’s not true that “all Wall Streeters” are doing so. Some of us, amazingly, want a robust self-regulating system that can operate with minimal government intervention. But there are no headlines in silence and maturity.

I’ve noticed that myself.