The S&P 500 index fell by more than six percent Wednesday and Thursday. The last time it fell more than six percent on two consecutive days was July 20 and 21, 1933.
Eighteen trillion dollars of wealth has been lost in global equities in only seven weeks.
This week Citigroup’s already depressed shares have lost half their value, and shares of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are down 30 percent.
Target shares have lost more than half their value since Lehman failed, and that is much better than many of its competitors have done. Shares in Macy’s, Sears, Saks, Nordstrom, AnnTaylor and Dillard’s are down more than 70 percent as this holiday season approaches.
In late October, the Federal Reserve board staff concluded that the unemployment rate was likely to rise as high as 6.5 percent by the end of this year. A few days later, the Labor Department reported it was already there, with two months left to go.
P.S. As I’ve noted, I am a disaster junkie. I am also an obsessive — I wouldn’t have been doing a blog like this for more than five years if I weren’t. That said, I’m not trying to scare you any more than you might already be about the economy. I just find it fascinating in a train wreck kind of way.