Wall Street and Washington Woes

Today was bad. Today was really bad.

People flocked to Wall Street and to Times Square to see what the heck was going on.

The result of today:

"In a moment of historic drama in the Capitol and on Wall Street, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to reject a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry."*

And what did this do to the stock market? Dow closed down 777.68 points lower than Monday. It's the biggest drop since 1987.



With members of Congress from both parties wanting the rescue passed- some blamed its failure on partisan ties, while others said constituents actually had an influence by calling their representative and still others say it's politics. Tonight on the Nightly News they discusses that a majority of NO votes were from congressman and women who are worried about the up and coming election. They're worried what passing a $700 billion dollar plan will say to their constituents. Understandable I suppose.

However, it's not understandable to leave the nation in crisis and take off for a holiday. Yes, it's a holiday, but people work through holidays all the time and to just leave in the middle of an unresolved crisis is not the best plan of action.

Today Charles Hurt wrote in the New York Post that the reason why American's are revolting the Wall Street rescue plan is because "they're all puking over the notion that it's the same bums in Washington who caused the mess by allowing it to fester who are now demanding their money to fix it. It's like the criminal who breaks into your house, hurts himself, then sues you for damages. The reason Americans endure their federal government is that it is so inept and useless that it has little bearing on their everyday lives. But in an economic meltdown like this, people dont have a choice but to feel the fallout of their government's incompetence..."

So people are calling and saying vote "no," but then congress did vote "no," now what?

Nobody is winning. Nobody seemed truly happy with the deal, but what other choices are available? What's happening to retirement funds? What's happening to the economy?

Maybe there's a reason newsy (or flat cap) hats of the 1930s are coming back into style, the clothes match the economy... and the economy keeps falling...





*Quote taken from a New York Times News Alert
*Stock Exchange Picture: Richard Drew/Associated Press
*Flat Cap Picture from Flickr