Come on, look at the bright side. Like McCain said the glass is still half full. Could have been worse, could have been 505 points down.
Back in April 2000 the market took a dive worse than today, but it ended up in a V shape pattern. This was the first signal that the BULL of 99 was ending. Today's drop, was nothing but orderly. Those that play high stake pocker (FED and BANKING/BROKER ICONS) meet this weekend to agree on ordely CREDIT SWAP trades. LEH is nothing new, nor did it surprise anyone on the street. The FED will not bail out anymore Banks/Brokers and will inject capital into the "SYSTEM" and possible lower rates by .75 basis. The market, if this was such a surprise, should have collapsed and crashed today. It did not. Closing on the lows and after hours indication suggest, more orderly selling and not Capitualtion or panic. The outcome of what is going on will be devistating to the Market's Liquidity and Volume. The slow bleed of investors will detour many from putting money in the US STOCK MARKET. We will not have a DEPRESSION. We will have a loss of interest in the US STOCK MARKET and money, smart money will flow to other areas. The majority of American's do not have money in the Markets, those that do have a simple 401k Plan that they vest 10% of their gross pay into. They will suffer losses but will lose interest in investing. They will have to worry about Job Lose and making ends meet vrs Investing in CRAMERS pick of the day. A slow and painfull death is what awaits the Trading Community. They should have let the chips fall will they may and allow the market to Crash, to get rid of the Toxic Debt and allow investors to go belly up with the Firms. It would have been a shock but it would have cleared the system and allowed it to continue. Now you have a "System" on life support only to find out that there is nothing anyone can do but let it die slowly, because we feel to bad to unplug the machine.