"Fat fingers", that's what one commenter called the problem. Some trader literally hit the wrong button and "*whoosh* - the bottom went out from under the stock market like a runaway elevator from Hell.
They were able to put on the brakes, but what a ride.
This peels back the wrapper to give a quick glimpse of the real nature of our modern economy, so much of which appears to be made of straw. The sell-off yesterday was less like falling dominoes and more like the collapse of a house of cards. Oops! There goes your retirement!
Our economy seems to have in many ways become our culture, and it is vast, and complex... and as fragile as drawn glass.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. - Matt. 7:26-27
Not seeing in that article where it was just a push of a button, but it's believable.
Posted by: pcNielsen | May 07, 2010 at 09:41 AM