Stock Market Revisited

Following up on Wednesday's post, How to Lose $1 Trillion in Nine Days, let's take a look at how much wealth was destroyed as a result of yesterday's "interesting" market --a gut-wrenching drop of over 500 points (4.3%) in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (See WSJ's, Stocks Nose-Dive Amid Global Fears)

Data from finance.yahoo.com

The grand total is ... a loss of $1.6 trillion in the U.S. stock market -- approximately $5,000 for each man, woman and child in the country, to give some kind of idea.

The good news is that gold and T/Notes have increased in value -- I wish I had more than a sliver of my portfolio in these instruments.

As of this writing, the market is down again, after beginning the day with a sizable increase on the back of the weekly jobs report.  The main concerns that are causing people to sell are weak economic news, and worries about fiscal deterioration in Italy and Spain.