I just saw at the bottom of the TV screen that today’s drop in the Dow was the 6th worst one day plunge ever. Nothing like going to work to escape reality. Other than glancing at the little stock market widget on my monitor I wasn’t paying too much attention. I noticed things were down early, then a little before noon it looked like there was a chance the market would go back up. A little later in the afternoon I saw that the Dow was down over 500 points, that’s about the same time I received an email telling me President Obama was speaking.

It was more of the same. There was absolutely nothing new. From then on it was just a disaster. The Dow lost over 600 points, and closed at under 11,000. Boy, I hate to see what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully Obama will keep his mouth shut, he just makes everything worse.

In related news – Freddie and Fannie, as well as other agencies, were also downgraded. States and municipalities could be next. I suppose the Democrats will blame that on the tea party, too.

Update: From The Washington Post:

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average plunged 635 points Monday, ending the day at 10,810, down about 5.6 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broader market measure, tumbled 80 points to about 1120, down about 6.7 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 175 points, ending the day at 2,358, down 6.9 percent.

All 30 components of the Dow plunged in value and 99 percent of the components of the S&P average moved lower. Financial stocks, led by Bank of America, which lost 20 percent to $6.53 per share, led the selling.

Investors also fled into safe investments such as gold, which set a fresh high of $1,713 an ounce, rising a record of nearly $63.80.

Update: Crockett Lives linked – thanks!

Update 2: How will they spin the plummeting stock market? They’ll say without his speech it would have been worse, and that he saved or created 100 points. Heh. (H/T Poh Diaries)

Update 3: From the Desk of Lady Liberty linked – thanks!