Black(ish) Monday '08 Begins with Plummeting Stocks

091508crash2.jpgReuters/NY Times

In the first ten minutes of trading this morning, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 300 points, while the major European stock exchanges sank more than 4 percent, the Times is reporting. What color is your parachute? The nosedive is the unsurprising result of several days of increasingly bad news from investment bank Lehman Brothers, which announced its bankruptcy filing after 158 years in business. Today is the first day of trading since the announcement, which also comes with bad news from AIG and Washington Mutual. Since the first minutes of trading, the Dow had recovering slightly, with American stocks doing a bit better than those in Europe.

Stephen Lewis, head of research at Monument Securities in London, tells the Times that "investors are wandering around in a daze. It’s not a panic by any means, but there is a sense that we’ll see a few more weekends like the last two and then we’re looking at a long, long convalescence." The bond market, however, is the place to be, with investors swarming to fixed income investments. In other silver lining news, the price of crude oil dropped more than $7 a barrel, and the Observer looks at how the crisis could impact the city's real estate market, perhaps even leading to lower rents. Crash, Wall Street, crash!

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OBL is sipping tea in a cave smiling right now.

I like how your chart from NYTimes keeps changing as the markets change.

Either way we're all boned, aren't we?

This had to happen. I'm no economist but this is a market correction. I'm glad Lehman wasn't bailed out by the feds. 610 Billion in bad debts would sink anyone and it makes me wonder what on earth they were thinking at the time. They bet the farm and they lost it.

I'd start worrying when the dow dips below 10,000.
those were good times or bad times depending on how one looks at it. but what do I know except 10,000 sounds like a nice figure.

But we should all vote for McCain and Palin right? 4 more years?

It's ONLY down 250 right now which is pretty good considering the circumstances. The lower rents are gonna drive more dumbass midwestern hipsters here like a pack of wild hyenas. Eeconomic depression leads to emo depression and they will swarm like locusts here.

Also rents will dip but because YOU can't afford them. I always wondered about people who think that lowering rents have nothing to do with demand - and that they themselves are that demand. Rents will dip but you will be back at home in Ohio or New Jersey because you don't have a job.

I wonder if the Merrill Lynch bull statue down on lower Broadway will be on the sale block. That would look nice in someone's backyard.

sorry I see BH also posted the dow should be corrected back to 10000.

I wonder if the Merrill Lynch bull statue down on lower Broadway will be on the sale block. That would look nice in someone's backyard.

Bank of America owns it now.

That's not Merrill Lynch's bull down there. I mean, it doesn't belong to ML...

Should I take my money out of WaMu???

#14 - I'd say take money out of Wamu if you've got over 30 grand there.

We want to hurt no one. We're here for the bank's money, not your money. Your money is insured by the federal government, you're not gonna lose a dime. Think of your families, don't risk your life. Don't try and be a hero.

Sure it's FDIC insured but there is a catch to that as the FDIC says they will return your money ASAP. That sounds good but it's bad cause there is no time table to return your money and you'll be held hostage by the FDIC cause they'll get around to it when they get around to it. It's like trying to recover 50 bucks from your brother. He's gonna pay you back but when? So if you have a lot of money and need it right away and Wamu goes under you are fucked cause you will have to go through loopholes to recover your money.

All Right! Now maybe I'll be able to spend less than 75% of my income on an apt. in Manhattan. Plus there'll be much fewer douchebags at the bars.

I wonder did the FDIC ever reimbursed any account holders? Because every time something happens, they get a fed flunkie to say, your money is insured, don't worry.

"We want to hurt no one. We're here for the bank's money, not your money. Your money is insured by the federal government, you're not gonna lose a dime. Think of your families, don't risk your life. Don't try and be a hero."

What movie is that from? It's bugging me...

All under Bush watch. What a joke this country is in now. Congress and Bush are all asleep. This is what happens when you have old farts running the country.

"Heat"
and what he says next with the bank manager was cool, too. Best shootout scene ever. if you look closely I would be the lady hiding behind the charcoal briquettes outside the supermarket.

I re-read my post about rents and realized it was mostly incoherent. All I was saying is that people who wait for lower rents are part of the demand side who in turn push up rent prices. Only by not renting in nyc are you not part of the problem.

I guess that makes more sense. I also forgot how I got on this topic...

Anyway Dow is down 350 and falling...

Real estate values are the ultimate lagging indicator on the downside. we will all be living in cardboard boxes before the greedy landlords and idiot small-time real estate barons finally relent. Remember the early nineties when they were sitting on empty units rather than cut the rents.

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