Monday, the House of Representatives shot down the proposed $700 billion bailout with a vote of 228-205, sending the Dow into a freefall of 777 points. The bill - backed by President Bush and both parties' presidential nominees - proved too divisive among the state representatives for many reasons: some claimed it was too hastily cobbled together, others were simply too scared of angering their constituents in an election year. One particularly favorite mantra of dissenters was that the bailout amounted to saving Wall Street tycoons from their own bad decisions at the expense of tax payers.

This “Wall Street versus Main Street” mentality, though, is far too simplistic. It neglects the simple truth that the failure of the government to act on the current financial crisis will directly affect all Americans, not just traders and banking executives. You might think I mean because stocks are dropping, but I don’t. The stock market goes up and it goes down: a loss of 777 points can be recouped in a matter of days, so that is not what should concern the average American.

What I’m talking about is the credit market: if institutions stop lending money, the consequences are far-reaching. And the institutions I’m talking about are not small players: these are countries, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, hedge funds, and major banks. If they stop lending and investing, that will directly hurt you. Here’s how:

1) It will be harder to keep your job. Most businesses - small and large - depend on short-term loans from banks to cover their day-to-day operating costs. If banks stop approving such loans, businesses have to make ends meet somehow, which usually means cutting jobs.

2) It will be harder to get loans. Without government action to shore up confidence in the financial system, it will become even more difficult for the average consumer to secure auto loans, student loans, and home loans. These loans have already frozen up, and we’re seeing the consequences in those industries.

3) It will be harder to sell your home. It’s already a tough time in the housing market due to the subprime mortgage mess, but if you’re trying to sell a home or foreclosure is looming, the freezing up of home loans is an even bigger deal for you. After all, even if you’re lucky enough to have a potential buyer for your home, he might not be able to convince a bank to lend him the money to make a bid. Now you’re stuck.

The bailout bill rejected by the House yesterday is not the end of this legislation: it will now be further debated, reworked, and voted on again. The important thing to realize is that, whether you call it a Wall Street bailout or a rescue package, this bill directly affects you and your ability to save and spend. More than 600,000 jobs have already been lost this year, and the longer the government takes to step in, the more that number will grow. This is not a time to drag our heels.

The next time you talk to your teenagers about the dangers of abusing drugs, you might want to include a warning about not using prescription medications to get high.
The Partnership for a Drug Free America reports one in five teens admits to abusing prescription pain medications, tranquilizers, sedatives, attention deficit and hyperactivity drugs and others pills.
The group says the No. 1 source is the family medicine cabinet. The group has created a campaign called "Not in My House" and has some tips to help keep prescription drugs out of the wrong hands:

1) Monitor. Keep an inventory of prescription medication in the home. Count the pills in the bottle or package after each dose. Check the supply regularly for missing pills.

2) Secure. Prescription drugs should not be readily available to everyone in the house. Take out only the pills you will need for the day and lock up the remainder. Medications should be stored in a safe and secure place for those who need them.

3) Dispose. Leftover or expired prescription medications should be disposed of properly. Pills should be placed in a non-see-through container with something unpleasant mixed in such as old coffee grounds or cat litter. The container should be sealed and put in the trash.

Finally, experts recommend when disposing of medications never flush them down the toilet or sink where they could contaminate the water supply.

Judy Fortin's Health Minute segment runs daily on Headline News from 10am to 6pm ET weekdays.

The $700 billion bailout plan was rejected by congress and that crushed the Dow. Here's what that means to you.

1) All bets are off

With this bill, it was hoped that it would be easier for consumers to get loans; banks would be under less pressure We've been saying that passage of the bill would likely have injected capital into the stock market that would have been good news for 401k holders. Economists said a passage of the bill would prevent companies from shedding more jobs. Keep in mind that this probably isn't the last of this bailout bill.

2) Don't panic

We did see one of the biggest intraday drops-at one point the down was down over 700 points.
If you do have a retirement account where you have a decade or two before you need the money, you should not be pulling your money out of the market right now. Today is not the day to get conservative. The federal government has moved swiftly in standing behind money market funds and other major financial firms. That should give you a reason for confidence.

For more of Gerri's Top Tips, watch CNN weekdays at 11:15 am Eastern Time.

The federal government may soon be bailing out the U.S. financial system to the tune of $700 billion dollars. Here's what it could mean to you.

1) Loan availability may improve

It should be easier to get a mortgage and auto loans–maybe not tomorrow or next week, but perhaps over the coming weeks. The other good news here: the bailout money could bring down mortgage rates in the long run. CD yields, in the meantime have been steadily higher since April and rates are likely to stay where they are for now–barring another rate cut by the fed.

2) Stock market may stabilize

Economists say that this injection of cash into the troubled financial system is necessary to prevent the economy from weakening further. The markets should get back to trading on corporate profits instead of fear like we've seen over the past two weeks–and that can only be good news for people watching their 401ks taking a nosedive. Your best defense here is diversity in your portfolio. One of the biggest lessons we've learned from this is that no investment is really safe.

3) May stem job loss

Economists say this bailout will avoid a sharp drop in employment. That's because companies will be in a better position if the credit freeze is thawed. Some economists are even saying that without this bailout, the unemployment rate could rise above 9 percent. Employment in the fniancial sector will take some time to recover.

For more of Gerri's Top Tips, watch CNN weekdays at 11:15 am Eastern Time.

America’s money crisis: All eyes are on Washington now as lawmakers attempt to save Wall Street, but scam artists are taking this opportunity to pick your pocket. Here's what you need to know.

1) Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac lottery scam

This one comes from the Better Business Bureau in Kentucky. In this scam, people receive a fax that tells them they’ve “won” $5 million dollars in a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac equity draw. Consumers are then instructed to fill out and return a questionnaire to the con artist. At this point, people are instructed to wire hundreds of dollars to a different address. This is a good example of how scam artists abuse company name recognition to scam people.

2) Advance fee loan scams

We all know how hard it is to get a loan these days, and here's one scam that's preying on that trend. Scam artists are sending e-mails to consumers that advertise mortgage refinancing, special loan programs and small business loans. The scam typically involves the "lender" making false promises to arrange for a loan in return for upfront fees. You may be asked to give your information over the Web or over the phone. You may also be told to send or wire transfer money to someone overseas before you get the promised loan.

3) Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams

Foreclosures are on the rise, and so are scams that promise to save your home. Instead of saving your home, these scams do is take your money, ruin your credit, and wipe out any equity you have in your home. Con artists may approach you by mail, over the phone or e-mail. They tell you to sign over your home to them and they may promise to sell it back to you. But by signing over the deed, you become a tenant and you can be evicted, your rent could be raised, or your home could be sold. Plus, you’ll still be responsible for your mortgage if the owner doesn't make payments so your home could still go into foreclosure.

If you have been a victim of a scam, or you have suspicions that you're dealing with a scam artist, get in contact with your local better business bureau or the Federal Trade Commission.

For more of Gerri's Top Tips, watch CNN weekdays at 11:20 Eastern Time.

I regularly get e-mails from expecting mothers and their partners wondering whether exercising while pregnant can harm the baby. According to the March of Dimes, there is no evidence that moderate exercise increases your risk of miscarriage, preterm labor or birth defects. In fact, 30 minutes of exercise a day while pregnant is recommended by physicians.

Not only will it keep your body in shape and heart strong, working out may actually benefit the baby too. One study followed a group of babies through age five and found the kids of exercisers were leaner than the non-exercisers.

But remember, not all exercises are created equal. Pregnant women should avoid contact sports and exercises that carry the risk of falling.

Exercises to avoid: kickboxing, soccer, horseback riding, high-impact tennis and scuba diving.

Safe exercises: low-impact aerobics, swimming, yoga, jogging, walking, and cycling on a stationary bike.

Doctors caution women with high risk of complications to limit their activity. This includes women with preeclampsia, heart disease or who are pregnant with multiples.

Always consult with a healthcare provider before starting any type of fitness regime.

Be sure to tune in to Dr. Sanjay Gupta every weekend on HOUSE CALL. You'll find the answers to your medical questions Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 a.m. ET on CNN.

President Bush just addressed the nation to seek support for a big bailout of the financial system by outlining the crisis we face: tightening credit, giant failing institutions, consumers cutting back on spending, because of fear for what’s to come - the whole shebang. His plan calls for the government buy up to $700 billion worth of troubled assets currently held by banks and other financial institutions.

The thinking goes that removing all those toxic assets from Wall Street’s balance sheets can help shore up confidence, and get credit flowing again. Washington lawmakers had been looking forward to a little R&R starting Friday - when Congress is scheduled to recess for the year. They’re unlikely to be putting their feet up just yet. With the proposed financial package a source of heated debate on Capitol Hill and many details yet to be hammered out, the bill may not come to a vote until sometime next week.

A lot of Americans are reacting to the bailout proposal with anger, asking why the government should be using tax dollars to bail out Wall Street firms who made bad bets. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke have been on Capitol Hill all week trying to talk up the plan, especially emphasizing how the failure to pass the bill will have far-reaching consequences that will affect every American. Bush noted the same alarm in his speech on Wednesday.

There are many valid criticisms out there, but we really need to do something now to help get our economy back on track. The bottom line is our financial system is close to a breaking point, because credit has “frozen-up.” So, what exactly are we talking about? Here’s a summary of what could go wrong:

1) Banks stop lending to each other, hurting businesses and consumers. Everyday, billions of dollars are lent between banks, and companies depend on that credit to help fund their day-to-day operations, including paying bills, or meeting worker payroll. That in turn hurts corporate profits, sapping tax revenue that funds government services.

2) Lenders can’t resell home loans, which means they become harder to obtain. That can push mortgage rates up, housing prices down further, which can result in a decline in government revenue from property taxes - sapping public funding for things local schools and services.

3) All this turmoil could hit Americans, where it hurts them the most - their jobs. Already, some 14 million American workers have been hit by the current credit malaise - in industries like construction, manufacturing, and now financial services.

The bailout proposal being hashed out by the politicians is certainly not a complete solution to our down economy - not by a long shot. We will still have a struggling homeowners reeling from the plummeting values of their homes. We will still have job losses - more than 600,000 jobs lost so far this year. And, we will still see prices go up for almost everything we depend on. But, we need to do something now that will restore confidence in the credit markets and provide businesses with the funding they need to operate. Whatever the politicians agree on in the end will probably end up being the greatest government intervention in the American economy since the Great Depression. Oh, how far we’ve come.

More and more people are tapping into their nest egg. And others may have stopped contributing altogether. But here's why it makes sense to keep investing.

1) You can't time the market

It's near impossible to tell when the market will recover. So, you'll be better off just staying put. Keep in mind, there have only been three instances in the past two decades when more money flowed out of stocks, from 1988-1989 –and that was just before the greatest bull market got underway. The second time was 2002 to early 2003, that’s just before the market doubled and finally…now.

2) Know the risks

If you do take your money out of the market, even for a short time, you could lose a lot of money. Consider this, if you missed the 20 best days on the market within a decade, you would lose about 43 percent of your portfolio according to Ned Davis Research.

3) Play it smart

There are three indicators you need to have to make sure you can weather the storm. First, keep invested. Then, diversify. Finally, watch those fees. They're eating into your returns big time. We're talking hundreds or thousands of dollars here.

For more of Gerri's Top Tips, watch CNN weekdays at 10:15 am Eastern Time.

What a week this is turning out to be - and what a difference a week can make on Wall Street these days.

The latest in the turmoil consuming financial markets started last week when Federal officials met with Wall Street's titans to help arrange a rescue for two big investment banks holding too many "mortgage-backed securities," now practically worthless as a result of the ongoing housing crisis. Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke and company refused to back any deal to rescue Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch with taxpayer money - pushing Lehman into bankruptcy and Merrill into a merger with Bank of America.

Then, mammoth insurer AIG warned of big losses from its own bad bets on U.S. real estate, but this time the Fed’s leaders agreed to provide up to $85 billion in credit to rescue AIG from certain bankruptcy because they said its collapse could pose systemic risk to the world financial system. As markets the world over reacted with fear to this, the Fed, along with several other central banks, injected $180,000,000,000 additional dollars into the world financial system, to shore up confidence and get banks to start lending to each other again.

Now, all of Washington has stepped into the fray to try to rescue Wall Street from itself - with Paulson and Bernanke negotiating with Congressional leaders to craft some sort of bailout in which the government agrees to buy up to $700 billion dollars of distressed mortgage-related assets from financial institutions, so they can remove them from their balance sheets.

The details are being hammered out right now - but we can assume it may resemble the bailouts to the Savings-and-Loan industry, or Chrysler two decades back: the government sets up an entity to buy and hold these assets, and sells them at a later date - hopefully making a profit in the process.

But, to shore up financial stock prices, the SEC took the unprecedented move of temporarily banning the "short selling" of stocks for 799 financial firms. And in the same breath, the Treasury and the Fed stepped in to guarantee troubled money market mutual funds, as fears grow that funds values could fall below the $1.00 a share threshold, as one did last week.

To top it all off, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – the last two independent investment banks standing on Wall Street - have both decided to transform themselves into "bank holding companies," meaning they will be able to acquire other banks and will be subject to more federal regulation, which will likely make the economy last turbulent.

Let’s define some of the financial jargon being thrown around by those big (bald) talking heads on TV this week as all these stories further unfold:

1. Mortgage-backed security: Banks lend money to homeowners through home mortgages; these loans are then bought from the banks and sliced up and repackaged into securities that investors buy and sell just like stocks. Those investors make money off the homeowners' monthly interest payments. The nation's housing crisis has forced many Americans to skip payments, or worse, foreclose on their homes, so investors don’t get the interest payments. That's why the securities become toxic assets to have on a company's balance sheet: nobody wants to buy them, and there's no market for them. Thus, all those institutions that hold these mortgage-backed securities - and they’ve got a lot of them! - are in big trouble.

2. Derivatives:A mortgage-backed security is a derivative security by definititon, because it derives its value from another financial security - in this case, home loans. But, there are some really complex derivatives out there using mathematical formulas that not even some financial wizards on Wall Street can comprehend - and a lot of those derivative securities get their values from the real-estate market, again wreaking havoc on Wall Street because financial firms hold too many of them.

3. Short-selling: This is a strategy used by sophisticated investors to make money when a stock price goes down. Investors will borrow stocks then sell them on the open market, betting the price will go down. They later buy back the stock and return the shares they borrowed. The short seller pockets the difference between the sell and buy price, and makes his profit - if in fact the stock price goes down. Bottom line, selling a stock "short" is a legal way to make money in the stock market. Peddling rumors about the state of a company's finances in order to drive down the price of stock you may be shorting is illegal. Apparently, the SEC fears that could happen in the chaos gripping Wall Street, and wants to prevent that from happening.

4. Credit Default Swap:This is a type of credit derivative which you can think of like an insurance policy: a seller agrees to make payments to buyer in the event of a predetermined credit event, usually a default on loans. The buyer pays fixed payments in exchange for this insurance. Thus, the seller of the CDS is making a bet that something won’t happen- that the loan won’t default. Leading up to the credit crisis, CDSs were widely used to bet that certain companies would fail. AIG’s participation in the CDS market largely contributed to their huge losses.

We'll see what Washington finally does to "bailout" Wall Street from its bad investments– and whether any benefits from it extend out to "Main Street."

I spend a lot of time at work staring at a computer screen. Not a day goes by when my eyes aren't tired, dry and sore.
Experts actually have a name for this type of eyestrain: computer vision syndrome. The Mayo Clinic recommends seeing a doctor if the problem becomes too uncomfortable.  Experts at the Clinic offer some tips for easing the strain.

1) Move the monitor. Adjust your computer monitor so it is at arm's length away. The top of the screen should be at eye level.

2) Dim the lights. Reflected glare can make it difficult to see objects on a monitor. Fluorescent lighting and sunlight can be some of the worst offenders. Try to place the screen so the brightest light sources are off to the side.

3) Take a break. Take at least five minutes out of every hour to rest your eyes and focus on something other than your computer screen.

4) Blink again. Experts report that many people blink less often when staring at a computer screen. Try to remember to blink in order to prevent dry eyes. Consider using lubricating drops that are available over-the-counter.

5) Proper peepers. Annual eye exams can help rule out any underlying condition that may be causing eyestrain. Your doctor may recommend glasses or contact lenses specially designed for working on a computer.

Judy Fortin's Health Minute segment runs daily on Headline News from 10am to 6pm ET weekdays.