The demise of Wachovia Bank is just the latest wave of bad financial news to wash across North Carolina.

With more than 60 bank branches in the Raleigh/Durham area, there is uncertainly among employees here about what will happen. But experts say, the deepest potential cuts will be to Wachovia operations in Charlotte.

In the meantime, everyone is wondering how is the government going to fix the financial mess?

Several local experts NBC17 spoke with say, there are a number of options.

Certified Financial Planner Troy Smith of Raleigh said, people "shouldn't panic." He said they need to "be level headed about their decisions."

As banks continue to fail and credit markets remain in turmoil, some experts like Smith believe Congress can't recess until it does something.

"Congress has no choice. It will have to act. It will have to do something," maintains Smith.

After the initial shock at seeing the bailout bill die Monday afternoon, the markets took a dive..

"There really wasn't a sector that was spared,'' explained Captrust chief investment officer Eric Freedman. "Today was real manifestation of concern that the federal government didn't step in as anticipated. That's the crux of it."

And now-with a bailout bill in limbo the question is, are there other remedies that might work to stabilize things in the short term? Eric Freedman believes so.

"Some things the feds could do that they haven't done would be cutting interest rates," he said. "Another thing they could do would be to add liquidity through the Federal Reserve."

Freedman said the Fed could buy securities on the open market or just issue new money. Those are just two options.

Ultimately said Freedman, there's a lot of creativity the government can use to help the credit markets in the short term, in the absence of a bailout.

TALK BACK TO STEVE ON HIS BLOG.