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Wow, what a ride we had last week. History was written as we experienced the single worst week in the history of the Dow, we have seen more than $8 trillion of stock market wealth disappear since January and we have had two of the three greatest one-day declines in stock market history.

This has sent leaders scrambling to unlock the credit markets with further action than the $700 billion bailout plan that has failed to inspire the market. President Bush and foreign financial officials got together Saturday to combat the unfolding financial crisis, hoping to calm the panic in the marketplace. The general message from the G7 meeting was that the group of seven nations pledged in a joint statement to "take decisive action and use all available tools."

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also announced late Friday night that the government would buy part ownership in an array of American banks through stock purchases. This step was also taken in the Great Depression in 1932 by President Hoover and is similar to Britain's move to pour cash into its troubled banks in exchange for equity stakes.

The move will directly inject cash into banks in exchange for nonvoting shares. That will provide quick capital to banks, rather than the step to buy distressed mortgage debt at above-market prices.

These types of actions have never worked over the long term and as I've said before, the bailout plan is too little too late. However, the government and the Fed seem to be willing to pull out all the stops to unlock the credit problems and get the banks lending again. Only time will tell whether this effort will work, but as I said last week, my sentiment indicators are stretched to the limit, and we were due for a sharp bounce higher.

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At time of publication, Manning was long Mosaic, although holdings can change at any time.

Mark Manning, AAMS, is an Accredited Asset Management Specialist and Registered Investment Advisor with Butler, Wick & Co., where he specializes in wealth management. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Manning appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.