MADISON, Wis. -- The White House and Capitol Hill are supporting the Federal Reserve for its $85 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG. But the move also shook up Wall Street with the Dow plummeting 449 points on Wednesday.

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"I've certainly seen a lot of purse tightening," said Swapna Deshpande.

But with news of the AIG bailout, along with other signs of this week's market woes, Desphande's confidence in all things money-related isn't optimistic.

"It makes you guess where you are with your money," said Deshpande, "And it sort of makes you rethink what you've put your money into."

"I have a daughter who is a freshman in college," said Madison resident Jill Jokela. "So I'm paying tuition bills and obviously you're concerned about what you have being saved."

But community banks like Park Bank in Madison said for most people, the rush to worry is unnecessary.

"I'm sure there's many questions being asked. I get questions and telephone calls everyday," said Scott Ducke, senior vice president of retail banking at Park Bank. "What I can tell you is community banks in Madison are very sound and secure right now."

Local economists said AIG's federal bailout saved things from getting bad to worse, especially for interest rates.

"Car loans would've become more expensive, home equity lines of credit become more expensive, the cost of borrowing for regular homeowners would've been expensive, even more so," said Morris David, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economics professor.

Another local effect, it's shaking economic confidence in the short term.

"I'm afraid to look at it these days, I'm a little worried, but I know I have a long ways to go until retirement, so I'm just sitting tight, seeing how it goes," said Jokela.

"I think the safest advice I can give is just to say prices go up sometimes, prices go down sometimes," said Morris, "But maybe the safest thing to do just assume times will get better eventually and to wait this out.