In an attempt to solve a problem created by government interference with the free market, the government has promised $700 Billion of additional “help” (minus a considerable amount of pork to get this “absolutely necessary” measure passed). The market’s reaction? Sell, Sell, Sell! Apparently the greedy wall street bastards have less confidence in the government powers and promises then -well- the government’s own view.
The DJIA is not a perfect measure of the market but it’s an easy reference point. Here are the closing of the Dow for the last few weeks:
| Date | Dow | Change | Notes |
| Mon, Sep 15, 08 | 10,917 | The week before | |
| Tue, Sep 16, 08 | 11,059 | 142 | |
| Wed, Sep 17, 08 | 10,609 | -450 | |
| Thu, Sep 18, 08 | 11,019 | 410 | |
| Fri, Sep 19, 08 | 11,388 | 369 | |
| Mon, Sep 22, 08 | 11,015 | -373 | |
| Tue, Sep 23, 08 | 10,854 | -161 | |
| Wed, Sep 24, 08 | 10,825 | -29 | President Bush proposes $700B bailout |
| Thu, Sep 25, 08 | 11,022 | 197 | |
| Fri, Sep 26, 08 | 11,143 | 121 | Democrats claim they have an agreement |
| Mon, Sep 29, 08 | 10,365 | -778 | House Republicans rejects first bill |
| Tue, Sep 30, 08 | 10,850 | 485 | |
| Wed, Oct 1, 08 | 10,831 | -19 | Senate passes revised bail out |
| Thu, Oct 2, 08 | 10,482 | -349 | |
| Fri, Oct 3, 08 | 10,325 | -157 | House passes revised bail out; Bush signs |
| Mon, Oct 6, 08 | 9,955 | -370 | |
| Tue, Oct 7, 08 | 9,447 | -508 | |
| Wed, Oct 8, 08 | 9,258 | -189 | |
| Thu, Oct 9, 08 | 8,579 | -679 | |
| Fri, Oct 10, 08 | 8,451 | -128 |
Note that in the week and a half before this “crisis” was declared such, the Dow dropped 92 points. In the week and a half that the government displayed its competence at promising help without mentioning how we got here, the Dow dropped another 500 points. And in the sole week since the ill-conceived solution became law the Dow has plummeted another 1874 points.
How many billions will it cost tax payers to bail us out of this bail out?
UPDATE: Another week and the Dow has “recovered” to 8852. Only another 2000 point gain is now needed to get us back where we started…