In three days, almost 600 points have vanished from the Dow – nearly a 5% drop.  Of course, a lot of this is just the natural result of continued deleveraging despite federal attempts to inflate housing and stock markets with access to cheap and freshly minted money.

As the Congress reveals itself to be increasingly paralyzed and more states fall into budget crises of their own, expect stock markets to stumble once again.

Senators and representatives cost more than ever, so only the biggest and richest corporations can actually afford to sponsor one’s decisions. To really get a good return on that corrupt lobbying public investment you may even need to buy several Congress-peoples.

But you know, “you have to spend money to make money” and clearly the path to a healthy economy is that you have to spend it on the politician’s consumption pleasure.