"Never Seen Panic like This" Is the Central Problem
Investor Confidence Dashed as Bailout Fails to Quickly Loosen Credit By Renae Merle, Michael A. Fletcher and Neil Irwin Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, October 10, 2008; A01 Fear and foreboding took hold on Wall Street yesterday, as the stock market again plunged and investors became convinced that the nation is on the verge of a deep and prolonged recession. The rout continued in Japan, where stocks plummeted in early trading. The government took steps toward an extraordinary public investment in U.S. banks and General Motors stock fell to its lowest price since 1950 on fears it will not be able to weather the downturn. Share prices fell across every industry and for each of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, which was down 679 points, or 7.3 percent, to 8579.19.
But the plummeting stock market could not be blamed on any single piece of horrible news -- there were no additional bank failures or government bailouts or corporate bankruptcies. "I've never seen a pan…