Dow Falls Below 10,000

Despite the ballyhooed $700 billion (actually, with pork it's closer to $852 billion) bailout deal, for the first time in four years, the Dow falls below 10,000:

Investors around the world have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan won't work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets. Global banks, hobbled by wrong-way bets on mortgage securities, still remain starved for cash as credit has dried up.

That's caused stocks to plunge in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and drove investors to sink money into the relative safety of U.S. government debt. Fears about a global recession also caused oil to drop below $90 a barrel; and the benchmark index that gauges fear in the market jumped to the highest level in its 18-year history.

So. What do you think? Did we just spend $700 billion on nothing? Link


Of course we didn't spend 700 billion on nothing! We bailed out the rich folks and the greedy corporations, that's not "nothing"! Now all we gotta do is cut their taxes down to zero, and then they'll magically create jobs for all of us. Massa gonna treat us real good!
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No, but I sure am tired to trying to explain to people why unfreezing the short term credit market wouldn't necessarily be immediately reflected in the Dow 30 Industrials.
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As a layman I never understood why it would be immediately necessary. Now I know...it's because it was not immediately necessary and we'd see results, if any, later on. Now we should question the fear they tried to instill in everyone and why both parties supported that and who it ended up immediately helping.
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1) We have not spent it, yet.

2) The problem was never a falling stock market, nor is the solution a rising stock market.

The market is collectived wisdom, at best. It is not technical knowledge, and it is not the outcome.

We want more jobs. We want more higher wages for workers. We want more output from factories, and more work for service and/or white color workers. We want more profit from companies, too.

The stock market -- and the Dow Jones average of 30 aribtrary stocks -- are not any of that.
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Dude....why was this even posted?

I think this site secretly loves angry posts and comments. I can see no other reason for all the political stuff that's ending up on here.
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It was the concept that "we don't need regulation and big government, the market will take care of itself" which got us into this mess.

Deregulation didn't help California's energy problems and it didn't help our economy.

The bottom line is that in this world some people will step on their own mother to make a quick buck and they will certainly step on yours without thinking twice.

Yes, we do need regulators because deep down we're evil. Every last one of us.
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@EEM:

Politics is part of the world we live in and some of the reason we are in this mess. So of course it's relevant.

On the bright side of all this:

I'll be paying less for gas now! w00t!
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It's not going to be immediate but when the arse falls out of the economy in the long run it'll have saved you and us in Europe to boot.

I know they really screwed the lower income families over in the past but now is no time to protest because if they hadn't passed that we would have all been screwed. that's a different fight for another day in my opinion.
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Yes, we were lied to by the Republ-ocrats once again. With the fear-mongering whipped up by this nation's corporate media (whose corporate families will certainly be receiving billions)our congress critters rushed headlong into the biggest armed robbery* the world has ever seen. All of that money for nothing other than the pockets of rich gamblers who lost bets, the bill will not stop a single foreclosure. The collapse of the economic system will not and can not be avoided.

* I say "armed robbery" because according to Congressman Brad Sherman, representatives were told that if the bailout did not pass there would be Actual Martial Law in America. This is different from the congressional procedure of martial law which was declared initially to rush through passage. The viable threat of armed force during a robbery is armed robbery.
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@kuanes

Very true! I agree 100%

it's just lame that I have to deal with it on Neatorama is all, and kind of ridic after that post about not wanting trolls.

Also this sort of thing I don't really consider "Neat" though it is extremely important!
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The $700B wasn't "spent," it was appropriated for a program that, as it is turning out, no companies want to participate in and thus won't be "spent."

In other words, all the talk about the "bailout" was a waste of time.
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@biltmore: "Reagan got us in this mess, not Clinton. Even an idiot knows that.

Now that's a good one! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa! Ha! Haa!

Oh, wait; you're serious, aren't you?

For all you who are seriously confused about the root cause of the current crisis, check out this summary in video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NU6fuFrdCJY
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RE: "David Govett, Reagan got us in this mess, not Clinton. Even an idiot knows that."

Thanks for speaking the truth. Unfortunately, the David Govetts of the country will continue to blame Clinton for everything, from the stock market to halitosis to their car not starting in the morning.
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Regarding today's crash: What did anyone expect? The investors have no confidence in these corrupt politicians. This bailout is just one more example of the indivisible handjob stroking irresponsible CEOs and CFOs with billions so that they can run the American economy even further into the ground. So much for Keynesian economics. If the goal is to stimulate the economy, why not give the money directly to the American taxpayers? The government could do twice as much good for the economy by returning half as much money (as the bailout requires) directly to the hardworking American taxpayers. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush administration.
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So biltmore, Patricio, et al... Care to elaborate on how you think Reagan got this thing started? And I'm sure your explanation has something to do with the evils of deregulation; correct? 100% bunk.

I won't lay 100% of the blame at Clinton's feet; it was Jimmah Cahtah who gave the ball its initial shove, and Bill just gave it a running push (eight years' worth). Of course, the gravity of almost 40 years of Congressional meddling is the biggest problem... But hey, who's counting?

For those who haven't seen it, this YouTube video gives as good a summary of the underlying issues as I've seen. (To give that video a little extra credence, know that YouTube pulled it from their US servers because it used some music that Warner Music took issue with.)
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@John Maszka,

I'm guessing you're living overseas. W gave us each a $600 check 6 months ago to go out and buy stuff in order to fix the economy. And here we are today.
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We spent 700 billion on a symptom; in no way did we act to ameliorate the actual problem, which is a monetary system with no basis upon concrete value. In addition, we blew 150 billion on pork.

In the meantime, our liberties continue to erode, the constitution becomes less and less relevant to the form of government we are ruled by, and we continue to make very expensive and futile war.

In other words, no, nothing has changed. And nothing is going to. Our citizens are too poorly educated to understand what is wrong.
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Yes, 150 billion on PORK! I heard today that the Indianappolis Speedway was getting some of this bill's provisions. If that's true, and the accusations of martial law threats are true, then it's true that our leadership influenced our congress on a hasty, nasty course of action just to further their own agenda of controlling the world.

And if I had my druthers, I'd rather talk serious issues that may determine the future neatness of my country with the Neatorama crowd than anywhere else.
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I know a few business students and graduates who are buying up everything they can now while it's cheap...they're anticipating a strong recovery sometime soon apparently.
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"David Govett
October 6th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

The Clinton Democrats got us in this mess. The Pelosi Democrats have perpetuated it. And the Democrats want us to vote for Obama? Are they mad?"

Bzzzzt. The bill to deregulate the financial market (which is pretty much what pushed us straight into this mess) was written by Republicans and passed the veto-proof Republican majority in the house AND senate before it was sent to Clinton to sign into law. Again. Veto proof.
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