I KNOW IT IS HARD!!!  But please be patient!!

Sigh - the markets seem to think things are fixed - NO, bank capital may be increased (VERY SOON, WE HOPE)!  However, then the banks have to actually begin to figure out WHO to loan the money to, etc.  The process will not happen quite as quickly as everyone would like ... and we still have the already discussed economic situation out there.

         

It definitely began in Europe (and Asia), where some of the governments are not quite as active in buying stock in the banks (we might call this a partial nationalization of the banking system, if we were looking at it from the outside).

From the CBC.com (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.):

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index closed down 7.16 per cent, Germany's Dax dropped 6.49 per cent and France's CAC 40 fell 6.82 per cent.

Also previously in Asia:

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost five per cent after rising more than 13 per cent in the previous two days. Markets in Australia, South Korea and China were also lower.

So we see from the New York Times (graph above):

At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 733.08 points, or 7.8 percent, erasing most of Monday’s 936-point gain. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 9.03 percent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq was down 8.4 percent, after the chip maker Intel reported a profit for the quarter but noted that sales of chips used in corporate computers were weaker than expected.

Again, the CBC seemed to say it most succinctly:

The day started off with bad news: Figures released by the U.S. Commerce Department showed that American retail sales declined by 1.2 per cent last month, nearly double the 0.7 per cent drop that had been expected.

The weakness was led by a 3.8 per cent drop in auto sales.

The dismal figures increased the risks of a recession because consumer spending represents two-thirds of total U.S. economic activity. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of decline in gross domestic product.

As the coined phrase goes, It's the Economy Silly!