While You Weren't Looking

Yes, the stock market was open on election day. And unfortunately the two days after, in which the Dow has fallen close to 1,000 points. When the market falls that far in one day, it's a national crisis. Over two or three days, it's business as usual. This is how the downward drift happens. A big crash or the recent 900-plus point rally makes news, but more or less the same thing happening over several days barely registers.

Is the post-election day drop the effect of electing a Democratic president? I can't imagine it is. Whatever the markets might think of Obama, his election is no surprise. This is where the market would've been headed anyway. But just as the fall isn't an Obama effect, don't expect the economy to do him the favor of magically bouncing back. (Though amid all the gloom and doom of this blog, I might note that not everything is a mess--I wrote about what's still okay in this story for The Big Money).