How Low Can You Go

So the Dow continued in it's seemingly effortless free fall today, eventually closing at 6,763.29. Yikes, that's about where it was when I first learned about the market in a high school econ class over 10 years ago.

I don't really have much to say about the economy, particularly the market side of things, as it seems to be a pretty much uncontrollable beast at this point, at least from my perspective. So I thought I'd mention who I turn to for a better perspective, we may as well try to understand what's happening as capitalism comes to a screeching halt all around us.

My Econ folder in the rss reader contains the following:

Paul Krugman - pretty much a must read.
Floyd Norris - another NYT writer and econ columnist
Andrew Leonard's How the World Works - which was much more fun before things imploded
NPR's Planet Money - not into the podcast, though if that's your thing it's worth a listen
James Surowiecki's Balance Sheet - the best reading of the bunch, he also writes the weekly financial page in the New Yorker.
Calculated Risk - the new kid on the block (for me) lions and tigers and charts galore oh my.

Also discussing economics but not really why I read them are:
Dean Baker - it's called Beat the Press and it's great but it's mostly media criticism
Freakonomics - is under my entertainment heading
TPM - always pulling in heavy hitters for comments especially as to the political ramifications.

So that's where I turn, they'll give you something to chew over at least.

Here's a scary thought from Floyd Norris; AIG lost $456,421 per minute in the last quarter of 2008, as he points out that's a year's ivy leage tuition every six seconds.