Legal Commentary

Dow Comes Back

By Big Tent Democrat

Today was a good day on Wall Street as the Dow gained over 900 points and 11% in value:

The markets made a comeback on Monday. Last week’s stock sell-off gave way to a big rally, with the Dow Jones industrial average having its largest-ever point gain. The surge came as countries around the world took steps to ease the financial crisis, ushering in a drastic reshaping of the banking industry even as doubts lingered about its long-term effects.

. . . At the close, the blue-chip index was up more than 935 points or 11.1 percent. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index surged 11.6 percent and the Nasdaq was up about the same. Stocks in Paris and Frankfurt had their biggest one-day gains ever. The rallies came after central banks flooded the financial system with billions of dollars in liquidity, throwing out the traditional financial playbook in favor of a series of moves that officials hoped would get banks lending again.

Hard to say if this has turned the corner on the crisis. Credit markets were NOT open today. And hard times are clearly ahead for the economy. Recovering a third of your loss is not exactly champagne time. More . .

But it does raise the question why it took Paulson so long to get to this place:

European countries — including Britain, France, Germany and Spain — announced aggressive plans to guarantee loans, take ownership stakes in banks or prop up ailing companies with billions in taxpayer funds. In Washington, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, is planning to meet this afternoon with Wall Street chief executives to hash out the terms of a new round of government intervention. Washington has also announced plans to take equity stakes in banks to get them lending again.

Finally, I still see no one dealing with the homeowner crisis in this country. In my next post, I'll discuss Barack Obama's speech today.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).