Well, so much for the short-term effect of the bailout.  Because the stock market crashed when it was rejected, it seemed reasonable to expect a rise when the second version was approved.  Unfortunately, we’ve had no such luck.

The Dow went down 369.88 points today, which landed it at 9,955.50 after trading concluded.  The loss in another form: 3.58 percent.  The Nasdaq, meanwhile, dropped about 84 points, or 4.34 percent.  Ouch.

This all happened despite a much deeper dive in the mid-afternoon, mind you, so things could have been worse.  And throughout much of the world, they were.

The FTSE-100 lost 5.77 percent, Germany’s DAX slipped 7.07 percent, and France’s CAC-40 went down 9.04 percent.  Moscow’s RTS stock index somehow fell 19.1 percent.

Should we all give up on stocks and instead buy guns and food?  Maybe not yet.  The price of oil keeps falling, anyway, so workers will be able to get to their jobs more easily.  And the unemployed, bad as their situation might be, won’t be barred from attending interviews.