I found this piece interesting and informative, yet it left me wanting more information. I have long been puzzled by the tendency to report economic indicators as unrelated facts: it seems evident that rising unemployment would accompany declining GNP. Similarly, massive layoffs lead me to suspect there will be significant drops in discretionary spending. Of particular puzzlement is the customary inverse relationship between worker displacement and the "value" of securities. In an economic system that is dependent on consumer spending, it cannot come as a surprise that layoffs will cause drops in spending. How can cutting the workforce make values rise in the long term? Overall, economic reporting tends to sound like describing magical rituals that hope to cause positive changes over mysterious, inexplicable, unpredictable economic phenomena. The overwrought partisan political bickering over cause, effect, and possible solutions serves only to deepen the mystery and terrify the natives...in this case, us. We don't know what will work, or how these things relate, but perhaps if we wave our hands just right and chant the right words, the problem will resolve. I crave thoughtful discussion of cause-and-effect economic relationships, and would like to see this story followed up by deeper analyses of these factors.