The Dow pitched headlong off a cliff at the open this morning. It kept tumbling all day long, ending just off session lows -- down 512.76 (4.31%). It's being reported as the worst day for the index "since the financial crisis of 2008."
I find that characterization laughable -- and if you have a lick of sense, so do you. I'd argue that the "financial crisis" began long before 2008, and it's beyond dispute that it hasn't abated, much less ended.
That the Dow clawed its way back from 6,500 to 12,800 is all but irrelevant -- the stock market is just one component of an economy that shows no signs of a sustainable recovery.
For evidence, look no further than today's other economic news. The national unemployment rate is 9.2%, and last week 400,000 Americans filed for first-time jobless benefits. Nearly 15% of Americans -- 46 million of us -- used food stamps in May. Virtually every meaningful indicator -- consumer confidence, retail, manufacturing, housing -- continues to head in the wrong direction.
Today's stock-market plunge, say the talking heads, might signal another recession or, perhaps, a double-dip recession.
Pull-eeze. Another recession?
If there's a bright side to the recent harangue over debt and deficits, it's that it formally introduced the elephant in the room. It gave every American the chance to see that our government's profligate spending has pushed us to the brink of national bankruptcy.
In the same way, the last time the Dow went precipitously south it exposed the markets as nothing but casinos of capital, driven more by collusion than by commerce. Either we got that message or we didn't.
If we learned our lessons well, right now we're pushing back from the table -- if we hadn't already.
