Damn, Dow!

Well, Congress' $700 billion tax-payer-funded "rescue" of the U.S. credit markets doesn't seem to have had the desired instantaneous positive effects that some predicted. The Dow Jones Industrial Average took a swim below 10,000 points for the first time since October of 2004 and crossed into territory that it first broke back in April of 1999 (when I was a junior in high school!).

Luckily, today will not be remembered as the first close below 10,000 since 2004, because the Dow rallied at the close to at 10,000.34 points, down 303.85 points (2.94%) on the day.

But before everyone goes blaming President Bush and / or John McCain for this calamity, remember these two things: Barack Obama voted for this thing as well; and turning around the tight credit market is not like parking a VW Bug, it's more like U-turning an oil tanker - these things take time.


Update: D'oh! Apparently, in the time it took me to type this, some final numbers came in, and the DJIA did not, in fact, close above 10,000. It came to rest at 9,955.50, down 3.58% on the day. But at least I'm not alone - the Wall Street Journal had to change their website headline, too.