…regarding today’s zany day on Wall Street. I’ve already always hated it when people celebrate wild upswing days— “stock market up X hundred points! System works!” Any system volatile enough it can swing multiple percentage points in a day— positive or negative!— does not strike me as a stable enough foundation to build modern society on.
The selling was a result of technical glitches that caused some stocks, including Dow component Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500), to plunge 37% to $39.37 per share from the close of $62.12 Wednesday. The consumer products maker recovered most of that loss by the close, ending just 2% lower.
But the faulty P&G trading was responsible for 172 of the 998.50 points that the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost at its worst, the biggest one-day point decline on an intraday basis in Dow Jones history.
A 22 point loss in one stock leads to a 172 point loss in an averaged index? Does anybody else feel like they’re either missing something or being fleeced over? While we’re at it… if all this glitch talk is meant to assuage us that this is abnormal, “special case” volatility— do they really think the idea of the world’s financial health being a typo away from catastrophe is going to make us feel any better?
Meanwhile, the Senate votes down the Brown-Kaufman amendment limiting the size of banks to something (theoretically) less than Too Big To Fail. I really enjoy this idiotic quote from Judd Gregg:
I don’t understand this Brown-Kaufman amendment. Basically, what it says is if you’re successful… you’re going to break them up? I mean, where does this stop? Do we take McDonald’s on?
You tell ’em, Judd! There’s no tradition in America of breaking up massive corporations with a stranglehold on the marketplace.
Sam and Devin dot com 