Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (Week)???

Not just a very bad day.  It is a Chicken Little Week and the narrative of it all is being written as we read and watch.

New Yorker Magazine's Daily Intel blog has this headline: Bloody Monday, Terrible Tuesday, Weird Wednesday as the  Dow hit its lowest level since 2005  yesterday, after having its biggest one-day drop in seven years on Monday. "Everywhere, analysts beat the drums of doom," writes the article.  People have lost 50, 60, 70% of their net worth if they were in some stocks.  The Fed is trying "to ease the worst crisis facing financial markets since the 1920s".

The graphics (story illustrations, magazine covers) will catch the cultural moment... but the visuals aren't out yet -- I've been looking for the best illustrations of this potentially pending doom.  The Art of the Economy was a post I wrote last fall and the word Recession was artfully done by the NYTimes and its use was way ahead of the technical "Recession" (which some are still debating and I'm not an expert, so I won't parse the definition).  Still, the shrilling experts like Jim Cramer were squawking and it just makes a depressing jittery week so here's my sky-is-falling art at top.

Ahhhh.  Steering the financial ships through the icebergs. Who's at the helm? It all became unsettled this week with an $85 billion federal loan to rescue AIG, and Merrill Lynch failures and Lehman's collapse, the latter which is six times bigger than WorldCom.  It's being called a U.S. Financial Crisis, but the effects are felt globally.  WaPo's photo story captures it best. 

I'll be heading off to visit my mom, dad, brother and cousin in Colorado.  Vail should be beautiful this time of year. Even if the markets get uglier.  So.... how will the story end up?  As (now Santa Fe resident) and former NYTimes journalist Judith Miller received in a letter sent to her in jail from Scooter Libby, the cryptic message of the aspens all turning at the same time might be relevant: You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now…Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. 

Roots of a financial crisis?  Where does politics play into this?  Does Sarah Palin understand predator control?  That the wolves have to be managed?  Is it all about the symmetry of sin? 

Fall is here... in more ways than one.  Hope for the best.

I'll be among Rocky Mountain aspens while the metaphorical aspens of the markets ...turn in clusters?

aspen photo: Walter Siegmund

Comments

[Lauri]

Enjoy Colorado! The aspens are indeed beautiful at the moment.

[allison]

I used to read the book referenced in your title to my children!(Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day) That is an appropriate summation of the week in the market. However I believe as in nature, there is a cycle, and things can't stay very bad forever. Or have I missed the news that the supercollider in Switzerland did actually trigger the end of the world?

[Lauri]

oh... and I love the reference to Alexander.

[Kathy]

You're such a good writer! I'll let you know if I see any more great graphics.

[anthony]

The markets were never meant to be a one way street .....up! It has a right and an obligation to go down, that's why its called a market. Stocks have a bid that someone wants to pay and an asking price where someone wants to sell. It is called free enterprise. Five years ago the Dow Jones ws at 9,300 and today it is at 11,000. That is over 18% higher than where it was five years ago, and it has been five years of getting over 9/11, five years of Iraq, five years of afghanistan, five years of difficult markets and yet, we are STILL 18% higher than five years ago. People need to realize that markets reflect economies and today, we are in a world economy, and it will in fact, change. It isn't the Democrats fault, even though they run the house and Senate. It isn't Bush's fault, as he has ZERO bearing on on world economics. Go ahead and blame wall street, but the NYSE is a bid and ask system and if you don't want something with its inherent risks, then don't buy it!!!! The weather changes, the world changes, the economy changes. This crisis was caused by people, who borrowed more than they could afford, and can't pay it back. People who make xyz and spend more than that with credit cards and cheap mortgages. People need to learn to curb their cravings to have more than they can afford. When people realize that it is up to them to stop going into debt, and save for themselves, then we will correct our current situation. Government was not created to bail out stupid people.