Percentage wise, the DOW is not yet down as far as the European markets.

FTSE 100 Britain - -5.66%

Where's the official announcement our bank deposits are insured up to $250,000? Germany, Ireland, and Greece have changed their policies to guarantee 100 percent of bank deposits. Britain is urged to follow their lead.

I glancing at headline earlier, waiting for a large file download at work to complete, and wondering...

when was the last time the Dow dropped below 10K? Either momentarily, or at close?

And isn't the schmuckguy who wrote Dow 36000 a McCain economic advisor?

Oct. 2004?

In Oct. 2007 it was approx. 14,000, almost a 30% decline in one year.

It was 10,662 when Bush took office.

Great returns for the last eight years. Yes, let's definitely privatize Social Security.

Down 500 as of 10:41 AM.

Tom Petty, anyone?

Markets react to bailout

Does that establish causation?

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

Let's bring back every nimrod that went on CNN, Fox, etc pushing privatization of Social Security and ask them how they could be such idiots and still dress themselves in the morning.

Wall Street tumbles amid global sell-off

Wall Street tumbled Monday, joining a selloff around the world as fears grew that the financial crisis will cascade through economies globally despite bailout efforts by the U.S. and other governments. The Dow Jones industrials skidded more than 300 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years, while the credit markets remained under strain.

The markets have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan won't work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets, and that many banks are still having difficulty gaining access to cash.

Current rules call for trading curbs at -1100.

Screw the DJIA. It's chasing expectations of future profit (and it's own tail), and its rise and fall may correspond to the health of the economy at any given point. It's just as likely that it doesn't.

Here are the numbers we should be watching to see if the bailout works: three-month treasuries and the three-month LIBOR should both be around 2%. They're currently .38 and and 4.29, respectively.

NYTimes.com

Before the opening bell on Wall Street, the Federal Reserve announced a significant expansion of the amount of money it makes available to major banks. The Fed will now lend up to $900 billion in credit, an enormous sum that officials hope will reassure banks that the government will provide them with adequate capital.

Full of Doubts, U.S. Shoppers Cut Spending

Recent figures from companies, and interviews across the country, show that automobile sales are plummeting, airline traffic is dropping, restaurant chains are struggling to fill tables, customers are sparse in stores.

When the final tally is in, consumer spending for the quarter just ended will almost certainly shrink, the first quarterly decline in nearly two decades. Many economists, who began the third quarter expecting modest growth, now believe the cutbacks are so severe that the overall economy did not expand either, and they warn that a consumer-led recession could be more severe than the relatively mild one earlier this decade.

Here's how I think of it:

The U.S. economy is stalling. That's because there isn't as much fuel in the tanks as "we" thought there was. Just a lot of vapor. At this point, there's not much anyone can do - it just isn't going to maintain it's current altitude.

The credit crisis is a related but even more urgent, scary matter. It's like the engines cutting out have also stopped the hydraulics on the flight controls. We need to get those controls back in working order so we can safely glide to a lower altitude without spinning out of control, and then work on getting the engines started.

Which all begs the question. Why would anyone want to let a pilot with John McCain's record take the controls?

I also repeat my objection to the DJIA as a measure of anything other than conventional "wisdom." It's runup didn't reflect what was actually happening in the economy, and it's rundown won't either.

Yes, we've had that debate before and I tend to agree. But it's "main street's" barometer while they're looking at their 401Ks, and Republicans like to take credit for bull markets (tax cuts! tax cuts! tax cuts!) and shift the blame somewhere else (Democrats!) when there are declines.

Just as a point of reference:

DJIA Jan. 1993: 3256
DJIA Jan. 2001: 10,587 (+225%)

DJIA Jan. 2001: 10,587
DJIA Oct. 2008: 10,325 (-2% as of Fri. close)

Heckuva job, Dubya!

"The markets have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan won't work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets, and that many banks are still having difficulty gaining access to cash. That's caused investors to exit stocks and move money into the relative safety of government debt."

"...But it's still unclear how quickly financial institutions will be able to hand that [mortgage-based] debt to the U.S. government and convince the markets they are healthy again."

In other words, we just gave $700 BILLION to a bunch of people who never had a plan to begin with.

BREAKING: Pope is also bearish on the markets.

TNGOP cognitive dissonance:

(link...)

Cramerica crash:

So what caused the acceleration in selling? Many have attributed the sell-off to hedge fund redemptions as well as comments Jim Cramer made on the Today Show before the open (that were later picked up on the Drudge Report) when he said, “Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week."

It's the economy, stupid.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

has not worked apparently. What is Obama's plan to save the economy? He is weeks from the presidency.