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The Stock Market Crash

Yesterday, a large-scale slide in China’s stock market ignited a global sell-off that delivered U.S. shareholders the largest single-day Dow Jones drop since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, erasing nearly $600 billion in market value. Wall Street, enjoying seven months of uninterrupted gains — the Dow Jones’ longest run without a 2% correction since 1954 — was long overdue for a period of instability, but many did not foresee its genesis.

There are various speculations surrounding the motivations for the whirlwind sell-off. Some point to the instability in our country’s market, spread thin by expensive wars, while others feel the crash was aggravated by an expected pullback, in which shareholders immediately sold into the downdraft upon its arrival. While traders worldwide tally their losses, bloggers trade theories and opinions on the crash’s driving force, commenting on how to quickly heal our wounded market.

Here’s what bloggers are saying about yesterday’s stock market crash:

“As the stock market rises, so does all kinds of negative news. By and by, negative news causes concern which, in the end, causes a major investors confidence shakeup. Just imagine how an avalanche evolves.” — texasshawshank.spaces.live.com

“Stock market crash. Recession. My life is unaffected.” — wallytham, blog.myspace.com

“Our government is not being responsible with our money (think about the piles of cash lost in Iraq) and is harming economic growth (business executives who can’t get into the country bring their business elsewhere – no visa, no business).” — Lisa, noquestionsasked.org

“We might have just experienced the perfect storm: bad economic news in China, coupled with Greenspan’s comments on a coming recession, as well as continued doubts on the housing market, bad corporate earnings, and a market that is simply over-inflated.” — Ed, measuringupblog.typepad.com

“Does it take a fucking genius to realize that this can not stand for long? Even a layman like myself can tell that the deeper this country goes into debt, the weaker the dollar becomes. Surely that can’t be good economic news for this country. The fact that the market has been soaring lately, despite the huge national debt, tells me that stocks have been over-valued and that sooner or later, a correction had to come. I think yesterday was a wake up call, warning us all of even bleaker days to come.” — slave-driver, lave-driver.livejournal.com

“I sat around the house today watching the stock market crash (I lost about $40,000. Ouch!)” — Mike, blog.myspace.com

On the Web:
www.nyse.com

Talk: How much did you lose?