The world’s head was spinning faster than Linda Blair’s; its markets falling quicker than a dead body off the Jersey bridge; the wailing was louder than Jamie Lee Curtis’s famous screams in Halloween.

Look at the carnage since August 4:

Dow down 15%
Nasdaq down 23%
FTSE down 13%
DAX down 17%

But to ulitmate lows? Let’s look again:

Dow down 31%
Nasdaq down 35%
FTSE down 32%
DAX down 37%

Asian markets were hit even harder: The Nikkei has dropped 30% since August 4, but had dropped as far as 47% at its ultimate lows. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was the worst performer of major, though. It has fallen an amazing 36% since August 4, and a whopping 53% at its ultimate lows.

Not even India’s Bombay exchange has fallen as far as the Hang Seng.

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For those of you that remember me from my days as editor for Material Profits, the commodity-based newsletter that has since evolved into Christian DeHaemer’s BreakAway Investor, you will also remember that I had quite the “green crush.”

My first international trip for Taipan Publishing Group was to a tiny island off the coast of Denmark called Samso. It had won a contest to participate in a ten-year race to become 100% renewable energy-based.

This year is the tenth year, and the tiny island has been more than successful. It now sells electricity back to the mainland.

So you can say that I was duly enthralled, and my model portfolio was packed full of alternative energy companies… most of which performed extremely well. (To be fair, some did perform poorly.)

My recommendations didn’t make me many friends…

I remember fondly the insults slung via email calling me a leftist treehugger that should just stick to investment picks instead of researching and recommending pie-in-the-sky renewable energy companies.

Well, as climate change and energy independence have headlined a number of events during the past two years of presidential campaigning, I’m happy to see alternative energy back in the investment ring.

Surprisingly, many top-notch European companies see the U.S. as a major growth region for the renewable energy business, and they are coming over in droves to set up shop.

Let’s take a look at just one of the technologies that’s already being employed around the world: wind power.

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Last Tuesday, I told Taipan Publishing Group subscribers in Taipan Insider that one Middle Eastern country was injecting massive amounts of cash into international markets.

That’s not really news nowadays, though, is it? Everyone’s heard of the $7.5 billion Citigroup bailout by Abu Dhabi back in November 2007.

But things have noticably been slowing down. When billions of dollars worth of investments get halved in value in less than a year, it makes you think.

Yet for some regions, this credit crunch is an opportunity of a lifetime.

Think about it. You’re an oil-rich nation with foreign currency reserves well into the hundreds of billions. Major global institutions are searching desparately for cash. Their fellow financial institutions are equally cash-strapped.

Suddenly, your country has a lot of power.

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Call it a triple-edged sword… or a dog and pony show with cats… or a rain of fire…

Or you can just call it plain old nonsensical. That’s what the past few days have been for Latin American markets. From the Mexican border to the tip of Cape Horn, Chile, markets have tumbled fiercely on the news that both Brazil and Argentina are injecting government into the private investment sector.

Brazil’s government wants its state-controled banks to buy stakes in private financial institutions. The announcement, made on Wednesday, did not include any names, but there are several well-known institutions that could be affected by this:

Banco Bradesco (BBD:NYSE)
Banco Itau Holding Financeira (ITU:NYSE)
Unibanco (UBB:NYSE)

Things may be a little worse in Argentina. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced that the government will take over the $30 billion private pension fund.

She said that Argentina must protect its retirees, and that the country’s constitution requires the president to provide pensions. Last year when the government allowed citizens to chose between privatized pensions and government pensions, only 20% of all people with pensions chose the government’s plan.

In response, markets plummeted.

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