ECONOMIC MELTDOWN
Once upon a time there was a tiny, tiny chicken named Chicken Little. One day Chicken Little was scratching in
the garden when something fell on her head.
"Oh," cried Chicken Little, "the market is falling. I must go tell the king."
So Chicken Little ran and ran, and she met Henny Penny.
"Where do you travel so fast, Chicken Little?" asked Henny Penny.
"Ah, Henny Penny," said Chicken Little, "the market is falling, and I must go and tell the king."
"How do you know that the market is falling, Chicken Little?" asked Henny Penny.
"I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head," said Chicken Little.
"I will go with you to the king," said Henny Penny.
So they ran along together, and they met Ducky Daddles.
"Where do you travel so fast?" asked Ducky Daddles.
"Ah, Ducky Daddles," said Chicken Little, "the market is falling, and Henny Penny and I go to tell the king."
"How do you know that the market is falling, Chicken Little?" asked Ducky Daddles.
"I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head," said Chicken Little.
"I will go with you to the king," said Ducky Daddles.
So they ran along together, and they met Goosey Loosey.
"Where do you travel so fast, Chicken Little?" asked Goosey Loosey.
"Ah, Goosey Loosey," said Chicken Little, "the market is falling. Henny Penny and Ducky Daddles and I go to tell
the king."
"How do you know that the market is falling, Chicken Little?" asked Goosey Loosey.
"I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head," said Chicken Little.
"I will go with you," said Goosey Loosey.
So they ran along together, and they met Turkey Lurkey.
"Where do you travel so fast, Chicken Little?" asked Turkey Lurkey.
"Ah, Turkey Lurkey," said Chicken Little, "the market is falling, and Henny Penny and Ducky Daddles and Goosey
Loosey and I go to tell the king."
"How do you know that the market is falling?" asked Turkey Lurkey.
"I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head," said Chicken Little.
"I will go with you to the king," said Turkey Lurkey.
So they ran along together, and they met Foxy Loxy.
"Where do you travel so fast, Chicken Little?" asked Foxy Loxy.
"Ah, Foxy Loxy," said Chicken Little, "the market is falling, and we go to tell the king."
"Do you know the way to the king's house?" asked Foxy Loxy.
"No," said Chicken Little.
"No," said Henny Penny.
"No," said Ducky Daddles.
"No," said Goosey Loosey.
"No," said Turkey Lurkey.
"Then come with me and I will show you," said Foxy Loxy.
And just as he was about to lead them into his den to eat them...
...the market fell on him.
"Oh dear," said Chicken Little.
"We're too late," said Henny Penny.
"Poor Foxy Loxy," said Ducky Daddles.
"No sense in going to the king," said Goosey Loosey.
"Nothing to do now but go home," said Turkey Lurkey.
And they did.
"Momentum is running against the market and you don't want to get hit by a train," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. "This is now about market psychology. There's extreme fear and panic out there."
The market is falling.
At the start of Friday's session, losses for the year totaled a staggering $8.3 trillion, as measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which tracks 5,000 U.S.-based companies representing almost all stocks traded in the U.S.
A stream of selling forced exchanges in Austria, Russia and Indonesia to suspend trading, and those that remained opened were hammered. The rout in Australian markets caused traders there to call it "Black Friday."
European stocks sank, with Britain's FTSE-100 down 8.09 percent, German's DAX down 9.4 percent, and France's CAC-40 down 9.7 percent. In Asia, the collapse of Japan's Yamato Life Insurance caused already nervous investors to pull even more money out of the market - the Nikkei 225 fell 9.6 percent.
In midmorning trading, the Dow fell 197.61, or 2.30 percent, to 8,381.58.
Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 22.63, or 2.49 percent, at 887.29, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 29.92, or 1.82 percent, 1,615.20.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 599.1 million shares.
Investors continue to shift money into safer investments, most of it going into the government bond market. The yield on the three-month Treasury bill plunged to 0.40 percent from 0.58 percent late Thursday. That suggests that demand for T-bills, regarded by investors as the safest assets around, remains high.
Longer-term Treasury yields moved higher as investors moved into shorter term issues. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose to 3.88 percent from 3.76 percent late Thursday.
Central banks around the world were forced to cut interest rates this week after continuing problems in the credit market triggered concerns that banks will run out of money. Analysts have described the mood on trading floors as panicked, with investors bailing out of stocks on fears there is no end in sight to the financial carnage.
World stocks fall sharply again.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!