A Swoon or a Tumble? Get Ready for the Mother of All Tsunamis

December 14, 2007

Market Falls Sharply on Inflation Concerns

  By REUTERS  

Filed at 4:52 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks swooned on Friday on concerns that surging inflation may prevent the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates enough to pull the economy out of the grip of a housing and credit crisis.

The three major indexes tumbled more than 1 percent each . . . . . . "The main driver was nervousness. You've got some people using the stagflation word, and you hear that and it messes up the psyche of the average investor," said Joe Saluzzi . . . --read entire article-- ___________________________________________________________ It seems swooning and tumbling are inventions in the mind of the bored guy at the financial desk at Reuters, who has to write something about market conditions. But if a 1% drop in the stock market is a swoon, I don't know what adjective would possible be appropriate for the 40% drop in the value of the dollar during Bush's presidency. Over 6% a year, what's that? A meteorite? Train wreck? Economic catastrophe? Whatever. My guess is that Reuters better get their thesaurus out and handy on the editor's desk, 'cause the criminal fraud becoming apparent in international mortgage losses is an offshore quake that's about to become a tsunami. As for the 'psyche' of the average investor, I leave that to your imagination.