Dow down 512 points today and over 1200 in the last 10 days

WayneH wrote: I blame it all on special interests able to give bucketloads of money to lawmakers. Why listen to your constituency when you're bought and paid for by lobbyists.

So you believe the American public is so stupid that whoever has the bigger campaign war chest wins the election? That dollars equal votes.

Meg Whitman would tend to disagree with you.

Part of the problem here is what Viking points out, yes the corporations get tax breaks, but so do regular taxpayers. Remember those evil Bush tax cuts? They not only trimmed taxes on the rich, but also decreased the number of lower income people paying taxes. Think that was pandering for votes?

Corporations don't get a vote, but lower income Americans have tens of millions of votes, so the politicians pander to this group too. Just like they pander to seniors.
But if you want to think corporations rule all of Washington, you keep thinking that.

Sorry about that stock market crash yesterday! My bad, I shouldn't have sold my 10 shares of Starbucks.

Fri 10:00am ET- Briefing.com
A sudden wave of selling has not only dashed all of the stock market's opening gain, but it has taken stocks below the depths set during the prior session...

Looks like the employment number lie wasn't enough to keep the markets up.

Could be another down day.

I dont think the market going down has anything to do with raising the debt limit- but it might have something to do with the fact that we are going into more debt, and we havn't even begun to cut government back to the levels it MUST be cut back to in order to slow down the crisis that is about to hit us.

I don't think the markets going down have anything to do with the european debt crisis- it may affect a few financial companies who are invested in europe's debt, but I don't see how an American corporation is worth less because of Greece or Italy's problems.

The markets are going down because the economy sucks, and it's being propped up with government spending- not the "real economy". It's all a house of cards ready to collapse.

I do believe the market going down has alot to do with the some of Europe's debt as well. I do worry that it is a house of cards. I don't think the market has ever been valued based on real money. Emotion has alot to do with it as well.

Derivatives, options etc are being misused too. They were originally used to offset liability but are being used to actually make money. If you have Netflix, I watched a really good program about the 2000 bubble that showed that the internet was not the only reason for that crash. And the person that tried to warn Greenspan and others was dismissed for being a woman in a man's world. It was really good and interesting.

Someone let me know when we hit bottom so I can pull out my giant wad of cash and buy in....

VL is saying hold. I think we are going below 10,000 before we see 12,000 again.

I was thinking more like 7000...

We've got cash on the side. Soon it will be time to shop!

I've been sitting in a cash position for a couple of months and was starting to think I was just paranoid. Glad I'm paranoid....

I have most everything in cash right now.

I hold about 15% in securities- plus my 401K is exposed to some degree, but about 85% cash. If the market does go to 7000, I would start buying index funds.

BearMtnHIB wrote: I have most everything in cash right now.

I hold about 15% in securities- plus my 401K is exposed to some degree, but about 85% cash. If the market does go to 7000, I would start buying index funds.

Index annuities with an income rider and you won't have to worry about the market again. Let me know.