The Stock Market: If it's not one thing, it's ten others!

[AndyA]

1. Banks aren't lending
2. Bush speaks to the nation
3. Oil goes up
4. Paulson speaks to the nation
5. Retail sales weak
6. McCain announces new economic plan
7. (Insert name of major institution here) fails
8. Foreclosures up
9. Hurricane (insert name here) strengthens and heads toward U.S. (insert Gulf/Atlantic, etc.) coast
10. Terrorists sabotage pipeline in (name of country here)

There's always a good excuse for the market to drop, it seems!

[shraby]

1. Another one:

A company came in 1 cent under expectations.

[truedelphi]

2. I'm happy as long as they are off the meme of "The poor people did it!"

Yep those awful unwashed masses just a-pounding and knocking at the Mortgage Giant's chain stores.

"Give us any ol kind of mortgage - but just get us into homes", they demanded. "Even if it means that you abandon those pesty truth in lending laws."

So the humble and gigantic mortgage firms, concerned that the poor might have to stay inn their hovels, helped them out with a bunch of Sub Prime mortgages.

Which caused the Greatest Depression ever.

Except that it wasn't really the sub prime mortgages.

It was the bundling of those mortgages into SIV's that then were insured by something called 'Credit Default Swaps', and because they were not CALLED insurance, they were allowed to not come under the regulation of the Insurance Regulaters.

How they managed this I don't know - there are a lot of folks in jail today who called their marijuana deals "oregano" swaps but they were watched over by the DEA nonetheless.