The current lead story on CNN.com's front page includes this, my emphasis:
Stocks tumbled today, with the Dow falling below 10,000 for the first time in nearly four years. At one point, the Dow was down more than 700 points. The sell-off came despite Friday's signing of a historic $700 billion bailout bill for U.S. financial institutions.
Hmmmmm. "Despite," eh? Anyone want to suggest substituting "because of?"
Yes, I realize there are other events, such as the troubles in Europe, that are pushing stocks down, and I'm not forgetting my own words from a week or two ago, but the implicit assumption that the bailout should have calmed markets is at least worth some critical reflection.
For the time being, at least, nothing will falsify the belief that the government is the answer. The problem is that as the government flounders around -- trying this and that -- no one will know what to expect. People will then quite reasonably, from an individual perspective, hold off readjusting.
Posted by: Mario Rizzo | October 06, 2008 at 04:15 PM