Think back to those halcyon days of summer, when we thought Bear Stearns was going to be the worst thing to happen in the credit crisis, before Fannie (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie (NYSE:FRE) moved back in with dad, before "Lehman" became a word whispered in the hushed tones reserved for the dear departed, back when our biggest concern was oil prices. Five-dollar gas doesn’t seem so scary now that the Dow is crumbling, AIG belongs to the government and $700 billion dumped into the financial system did little to halt the downward progress of every stock you own. Those were nice days.

But in June, when we still believed the credit crisis was just going to mean a couple of years of unpleasant quarterly reports from the financial sector, The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) was hitting a 52-week low. The company bottomed at $32.31 as analysts (and the rest of us, too) speculated on the company’s profit margins, what with the rising cost of commodities like cocoa, sugar and soy lecithin.

Brazilian pulp manufacturer Aracruz Celulose (NYSE:ARA) fired its chief financial officer a couple of weeks ago in its country’s own version of a financial crisis.

In Brazil, it wasn’t bad credit that sent stocks tumbling and massacred the executive ranks. It was the country’s currency, which tumbled, exposing idiotic gambles by CFOs and their staff and turning company boards into financial firing squads.

It’s been following the market almost exactly, rising and falling with the Dow, until two weeks ago, when shares of Tyco (NYSE:TYC) began a headlong crash, plummeting more than 26% in less than 11 trading days.

If you’re looking for a news-related collapse, you won’t find one here. The only thing Tyco has done in the last month was register to sell "from time to time an indeterminate amount of debt securities, preference shares, common shares, purchase contracts, depositary shares, warrants, units and guarantees of debt securities" (thank you, Dow Jones and Reuters for the quote).

The hits just keep on coming, but the stock price is still rising.

Fortis, the Dutch bank that already suffered the humiliation of being propped up by, not one, but three different governments, just lost its deal with one of China’s largest insurers. And the company’s commercial banking sale to Deutsche Bank (DB) has been put on hold by regulators until further notice.

Just as predicted, Xstrata (XSRAF.PK) (London: XTA) walked away from its hostile bid to buyout Lonmin (LNMIY.PK) (London:LMI) yesterday. But it may not be for the reason the mining giant stated.

According to Xstrata, the market turmoil made a takeover too risky at the moment. And corporate credit is a touchy subject these days. If you think it’s difficult to get a $200,000 house loan, you should try getting a $10 billion loan using your future mining activities as collateral right now.

Brasil Telecom (BTM) is either up 7% or down 4%, depending on how much you take the volatile market to heart.

Tuesday, BTM was building a healthy one-day gain of 12%… until 4 p.m., when, for 30 minutes, the stock plummeted 8.5% to a close of $21.88.

Three days before the Xstrata (XSRAF.PK) (London:XTA) bid deadline, and Lonmin (LNMIY.PK) (London:LMI) has rolled over into the corporate equivalent of the fetal position.

Lonmin CEO Brad Mills bowed out of his position today by "mutual consent" according to the company, which Mills led for the last four and a half years through safety stoppages, labor strikes and power outages in its South African platinum mines.

Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS) is down 24% this morning on news that Fortis [Brussels:FORB] must sell its stake in their joint takeover of ABN Amro Bank.

The two banks, along with Spain’s Santander (NYSE:STD), bought out ABN last year, spending $101 billion at the pinnacle of financial valuation in the world’s largest (and possibly worst-timed) bank acquisition to date.

The European Union is trying to “unbundle” its energy conglomerates. Too bad it can’t do the same thing for the biggest threat to Europe’s energy supply. Gazprom (OGZPY.PK) wins when RWE loses.

First, you should know that Russia owns Europe. Let’s dispel any ideas to the contrary. Russia’s Gazprom (OGZPY.PK) controls a significant percentage of the natural gas running into Europe. And the EU is making it even easier for the former socialist republic to throw its weight around on the Continent.

It’s the "teach a man to fish" theory of steelmaking:  Buy iron ore from someone else, and you have it for a day (actually, 365 days, since iron ore is sold in year-long contracts), but buy  your own mine, and you have iron ore for life.

China’s steelmakers are worried about the price of their biggest ingredient.

India's Tata Motors (TTM) is still slugging it out in Singur, but with the debut for its Nano looming, it could pull out any day now.

Tata Motors was planning to construct its Nano vehicle, billed as "the world's cheapest car", at a factory in Singur, but the company has been beset with protests that kept workers locked in its factory for days and blocked major highways to and from the city all because of something that has more to do with the West Bengal government than it does Tata Motors.

Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE:PCX) started this morning by gaining 4%, but soon after lunch traders changed their mind and pushed the stock down nearly 5%. Why all the confusion?

Patriot Coal is the third-largest coal producer and marketer in the Eastern U.S. And it’s perfectly positioned to profit as the weather turns colder and we turn on our heat. So why would the stock price be falling?

If only Boeing (BA) were Brazilian. In 1995, oil workers at Brazil’s state-controlled Petrobras (PBR) decided to go on strike (because the government was reorganizing the company in advance of partial privatization, which has only made union workers more money).

After unsuccessful negotiations and a drastic slide in oil and gas production that threatened not only Petrobras’s profits, but the daily lives of Brazil’s citizens who had no gas to heat their homes or cook their meals, the country’s then-president did what many a company executive dreams about. He sent soldiers into the Petrobras refineries where workers were protesting, and “suggested” that the oil workers return to work immediately. And it worked.

Remember back last winter, when the BHP Billiton (BHP) bid to takeover Rio Tinto  (RTP) was sending China's steelmakers into a tizzy?

They were terrified that the union of BHP, the third largest iron ore producer globally, and Rio Tinto, the second, would create a de facto monopoly on their industry's most vital raw ingredient. Well, it looks like Chinese steel producers won't have to wait for that most disadvantageous of unions (for them at least) to watch iron ore prices go through the roof.

Anyone who’s been watching the news on Tata Motors (TTM) is feeling pretty frustrated right now. I have the urge to wail every time I look at our loss on the stock. We’re sitting at 40% down, although, many of you may have hit your stop loss a while ago and sold out.

If not, you may want to sell your shares and buy back when TTM finds a bottom. But I’m in the stock for the long-term. And I think Tata can dig itself out of this hole.

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (SSCC) was up 30% yesterday on news that its competitor International Paper (IP) pushed through a hike in containerboard prices as of October 1.

The new prices, which aren't specified, could triple Smurfit's earnings if they hold through 2009. That would mean earnings as high as $1.50 per share versus. the estimated 45 cents per share right now. And even after Smurfit's 30% run up yesterday, the share price would only be about four times earnings.

FuelCell Energy (FCEL) fell 13% (and counting) yesterday on news that its loss widened in the third quarter (see earnings call transcript). But FuelCell’s stock is suffering, not from bad quarterly results, but from the deflation of a "fashionable investment" bubble.

In the last year, alternative energy has been a popular investment sector to say the least. And while solar and wind energy companies have already proved they can turn a profit with their products, even if they must rely on the tax incentives of kind-eyed governments to do it, fuel cell manufacturers haven’t seen such great results.

Let me start by saying this is a long-shot investment. It’s contingent on an election, and we all know how fickle the voting population can be.

With that out of the way, I’d like you to take a look at Western Australia (the state, not the geographical area, although they’re both basically the same.). State elections are coming up, and the polls are giving  hope to the Liberal Party. I don’t pretend to understand Australian politics, but it looks like the Liberal Party in Australia is more like the Republican Party (small government, low taxes) here in the States. Go figure.

ReneSola (SOL) falls on good news, and when it finally reacts positively to incredible quarterly earnings, the stock starts selling off within an hour.

Want a more logical solar cell stock? Check out Suntech Holdings (STP). Suntech is a Chinese solar cell company that just announced great second quarter earnings (see conference call transcript). They’re not as good as ReneSola’s, which nearly tripled its earnings for the quarter, but Suntech did see a 57.9% rise in profits year over year. And it beat analysts’ estimates by nearly 30%.

Only in China would a car salesman refuse to sell you a big fancy foreign car.

China is increasing the tax on large luxury cars, bringing the charge up 13%-33%, depending on engine capacity.