Huh.

Go to work for a few hours and the world falls apart:

Dow: -777.68
Nasdaq: -199.61
S&P 500: -106.62
Number of companies on the NYSE whose shares declined today: 3,333
Number of companies on the NYSE whose shares advanced or stayed the same: 222

The House rejected the bailout plan.

There was no late-day rally that could possibly be continued tomorrow. That's not to say the bottom-feeders won't cause a bit of recovery over the next couple of days, but I wouldn't bet on any sort of sustained bounce. More important may be some of the psychological barriers: a loss on the Dow half the size of today's will push it below 10,000; a loss equal to today's loss on the S&P will drop it under 1,000; the Nasdaq is already below 2,000. There is nothing magic about these numbers; after all, 10,000 is just one more than 9,999 and one less than 10,001. But this isn't about logic. This is about emotion. Fear and panic, to be specific. The horses are stampeding into the burning barn.

I did finally get a bit of news: I now know my schedule at the cafe: Monday through Friday 9:30am to 4pm. Banker hours. Not a bad deal. Now we can start doing more stuff on the weekends and see some of the local sites.

Now if I just knew how much I was making an hour....