This crisis is about to get uglier.

If you're worried about the IndyMac Bank failure on Friday — America's third largest in history — brace yourself.

This crisis is about to get uglier.

General Motors is now nearer to bankruptcy than at any time since it nearly failed in 1920.

Its bonds are junk. Its sales are in shambles. Its management is in denial — quick to issue statements to stem investor fears, but slow to make decisions to avert financial disaster.

Even Wall Street, which typically sees the world through rose-colored glasses, estimates GM has a 75% chance of going broke within the next five years, based on the actual trading of specialized insurance contracts called credit default swaps. That's 3-to-1 odds the company will not survive!

Meanwhile, the company's shares are down the toilet, the lowest since July 1954. The last time they sold at this level, John Kennedy was a first-year rookie Senator from Massachusetts ... Elvis was a truck driver ... and the oldest of the Beatles was barely 14.

In its heyday, General Motors was a $66 billion company with nearly half of the U.S. auto market. Today, it's a $5 billion company with less than one-fifth of the U.S. market.

Hard to believe, but true: Right now, in terms of the total value of shares outstanding, our country's largest maker of real cars is actually smaller than Mattel, a maker of toy cars.

What Should You Do Right Now?

1. If you haven't done so already, shed most of your non-resource stocks. Too late? No. The Dow is still near 11,000. It could easily go to 7200.

2. Build cash. Find a good secondary source of income like Home Seller Assist

3. Protect the remainder of your stock portfolio from stock market declines — or go for significant capital gains — using our inverse ETFs.