What Caught My Eye Today

Stock Market - The Dow is starting to look a lot like a backward auction. 10,000...I have 10,000. Who will give me 9? 9,000...I have 9,000. Now I want 8. Who will give me 8,000? A runaway train of a sell-off turned the anniversary of the stock market peak into one of the darkest days in Wall Street history, driving the Dow Jones industrials down a breathtaking 679 points and deepening a financial crisis that has defied all efforts to stop it. What? Like you've never had a bad anniversary? Stocks lost more than 7%, $872 billion of investments evaporated. As bad as the day was, even worse was the cumulative effect of a historic run of declines: The Dow suffered a triple-digit loss for the sixth day in a row, a first, and the average dropped for the seventh day in a row, a losing streak not seen since 2002. You all may want to sit down for this next statistic. Paper losses for the year add up to an staggering $8.3 trillion, according to figures measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which tracks 5,000 U.S.-based companies representing almost all stocks traded in America. At least some folks are managing to cope with this mess. After the closing bell, shell shocked traders and bankers gathered at Bobby Van's Steakhouse and downed beers and drinks to chase the ghastly numbers. Ah yes. Booze. The cure all for any ailment.

National Debt - You sort of have to laugh at this next item. Crying certainly doesn't seem to be helping. In a sign of the times, the National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure. See I told you it was funny...where did I put that gun? As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure — the "1" in $10 trillion. It's marking the federal government's current debt at about $10.2 trillion. The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars. I think the real tragedy here is that at the rate we're going, those two extra digits are probably going to come in handy...darn it, I know that gun is around here someplace. The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt. Click here for the official Treasury Department Debt to the Penny...if you dare.

Dalai Lama - The Dalai Lama was hospitalized in New Delhi just days after a medical checkup cleared the Tibetan spiritual leader to resume foreign travel. That's Medicare for you. You think that you're better, then whammo--a relapse. In August, the 73-year-old Dalai Lama was admitted to a Mumbai hospital and underwent tests for abdominal discomfort. Doctors advised him to cancel a planned trip to Europe and rest, saying he was suffering from exhaustion. The Dalai Lama normally spends several months a year traveling the world to teach Buddhism and highlight the Tibetans' struggle for greater freedom in China. He was to have visited Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Germany in October. In this day and age, the world needs all the peacemakers it can lay its hands on (Yes, I know. The Chinese would probably disagree with me on this point.). So, its from the heart that I say to the Dalai Lama, "Gunga galunga...gunga, gunga-galunga." (If this doesn't ring any bells, click here, and all will be revealed.

North Korea - I've got a two-fer for you today. Given the first one, the second one is all the more surprising.

North Korea moved closer to relaunching its nuclear arms program, announcing that it wants to reactivate the facility that produced its atomic bomb and banning U.N. inspectors from the site. Despite the gloomy implications of North Korea's moves, they could be a negotiating ploy: The year needed to start its reprocessing plant could be used to wrest more concessions from the regime's interlocutors. My initial reaction would have been to say that this is a dangerous game for North Korea to be playing. And then I read this...

The Bush administration looks poised to provisionally remove North Korea from the State Department's terrorism blacklist (this according to a report from the Washington Post). The move would be an effort to keep a nuclear disarmament pact with North Korea from falling apart. North Korea deployed more than 10 missiles on its west coast apparently for an imminent test launch. Interesting, wouldn't you say. Now here's the part I don't get. Apparently, North Korea decided to announce its intention to reactivate its nuclear arms plant after the State Department made this announcement. I'm like totally confused.

Kosovo - Serbia's neighbors Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo in a blow to Belgrade's efforts to counter the secession of its former province. Montenegro and Macedonia were the only two former Yugoslav republics that ended their union with Serbia peacefully. I bet Serbia isn't too friendly with these guys now. Serbia recalled ambassadors from all countries that recognized Kosovo's February 17 declaration of independence, but decided to reinstate ambassadors to all countries, more than 40 in total, including the United States. Well, suppose that is a capitulation of sorts. Plus, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Kosovo is a lost cause for Serbia. It will be interesting to see how the Georgia-South Ossetia situation plays out.