State of Fear

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 777 points Monday, its biggest single-day fall ever, easily beating the 684 points it lost on the first day of trading after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

That's right - the WORST ever!! Except for one little point. As of today, it's not.

In October 2002, the NASDAQ dropped to as low as 1,108.49 - a 78.4% decline from its all-time high of 5,132.52, the level it had established in March 2000.

To put some perspective on it, the Dow dropped 6.9% today.

On October 19, 1987, the stock market crashed. The Dow dropped 508 points or 22.6% in a single trading day. This was a drop of 36.7% from its high on August 25, 1987.

Again, the market dropped less than 7% today...

One of the books I would suggest that everyone reads is Crichton's State of Fear. He does a fabulous job of explaining how our media manipulates the news to create a constant state of panic and fear. Exactly what we're seeing today. Are the financial markets hurting? Clearly. But the worst ever? Not quite.