First of all, if it's dollars you want to count, the day the Dow dropped 777 points, the value of the companies listed on Wall Street fell by more than a trillion dollars. That's more than had ever before in a single day too. So, points, or value of quoted corporations in dollars, it was a record fall. Maybe my perspective is a little wrong, but I think that it's telling us that something serious is happening, and it would be burying your head in the sand to ignore it. If the percentage drop was only 7%, and there have been larger falls on rare occasions before, it's still far more in a day than is normal.

And, besides, as DrBuzzCzar usefully points out, we are looking at the wrong index if we are watching the Dow. Its current volatility is being caused by the fact that there's not enough hard cash or available credit to allow ordinary commerce and trade to proceed. The banks that have folded weren't insolvent as such, they just ran out of liquid funds. That's why all the central banks have been pouring extra money into the markets and making emergency lines of credit available. When the Dow falls these days, it's because it's writing off the businesses that don't have enough liquid funds left and can't borrow more.

Then along come Barclays, BankAmerica and others of that ilk to pick over the remains. If these predators survive, they'll have picked up valuable assets for a song. But there's a good chance they won't because Congress has said that now the sick must cure the sick, ignoring the possibility that there could be a financial plague out there.

Comrade Bush wanted to inject his $700bn as a temporary palliative: it wasn't a cure. It was just one dose, and it might not have been enough. But one way or another, he'll have to do something eventually.

Otherwise, as I said before, it's higher interest rates, stagflation, bankruptcies and rec-/depr-ession.