| | DOW | 8579.19 |  | -678.91 | -7.33% | | | NASDAQ | 1645.12 | | -95.21 | -5.47% | | S&P | 909.92 | | -75.02 | -7.62% | | | | | |  | Bertha Coombs, CNBC Reporter
The markets have again lurched headlong toward bottomless perdition. It is scary, gut wrenching and a real test of one's sense of resilience. In times like these, I turn to history. What we need is a strong voice to shake us and say, we can and will get through this.
During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt was that voice. The first of his fireside chats is well worth revisiting today, when we quarrel about Main Street and Wall Street. Our will to make it better, he says, is an important part of the solution: "There is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency… and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work.
It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail."
We have a very rough road to hoe ahead. We might all do well to talk to our depression era parents and grandparents about working through really hard economic times, and resetting our expectations about credit and spending in the near future.
I look to my mom, who uses credit wisely, paid down her mortgage and bulks up her savings, as a matter of course. She doesn't know how to use an ATM card -- she actually lives on the cash she budgets from her bi-weekly paychecks.
There's a reason they call her and her peers the Greatest Generation. They got through some very scary, very hard times. We can learn a lot from them now. (source: www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu)
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Dow Drops 679 Today: Where do we go from here? Get the answers you need to navigate through today's volatile market "Wall Street Crisis: Is Your Money Safe" Tonight 7p ET hosted by Larry Kudlow | |
| | 3. The "Paulson Effect" 
People are trading the "Paulson Effect" -- every time U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson takes the stage and talks about the situation, the markets go down, notes Daniel Frishberg, chief investment strategist at LafferFrishberg.com. Frishberg & Donald Luskin, CIO of Trend Macrolytics discuss the phenomena with CNBC's Amanda Drury. | | |
| | 4. Bear Market Until 2011: Analyst
Between October 8 and October 10 is a key time for making a low in the market, according to Tom Hougaard from City Index, adding that we are likely to be in a bear market until 2011. | | |
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