I don't think Wall Street is paying any more attention to Bush's rah rah economy talk any more than they are listening to Paulson's "strong dollar" speeches.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

All good points. I think institutional investors mostly drive the markets these days by way of 401Ks and mutual funds.

Anyway, the DJIA was down 223.55 to 13,042.74, off from its high of 13,699.40 on Wednesday. If my arithmetic is correct, that's a drop of 656.70 or about 4.8%. Ouch!

Analysts cite the credit market slump and expectations of continuing losses in financial services among other things.

I have to say that the weak dollar policy may finally be catching up with the economy. It gave us a short-term boost in exports, but now the Chinese are looking for a better return than the decreasing value T-bills. We'll have to offer up much higher interests rate to sustain interest in T-bills and the economy will go into recession as the existing credit crunch gets worse. If we aren't careful, it could be a long one because the world now has other places to put its money, like the euro. I suspect Wall Street is picking up on these vibes now. A poor consumer spending season this Fall and Christmas may push the economy over. I bet this becomes the most important issue on the campaign trail in 2008.

At least it'll be entertaining to hear the democrats caterwaul about the 'worst economy in 50 years' for about the 10,000th time .. always good for a laugh.