Thursday's Stock Market Dive

Thursday the stock market nose dived almost 1000 points in 15 minutes. The NY Times says

President Obama and lawmakers called for action, and regulators at agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission promised to deliver, even as they struggled to understand the origins and particulars of Thursday’s chaos.

The gist of the solution, according to regulators, traders and academics is that markets need uniform rules for intervening when a stock goes into free fall.

I've heard excuses that it was "fat finger syndrome", the Greek riots, computerized trading, but what I never hear about is computer hacking.

As Amy Poehler said on Saturday Night Live Last Night: "You mean a trader can trade a billion shares without manager oversight, while if I try to use a $50 bill to pay for a Starbucks it becomes a 4 person transaction -- REALLY?"

My hope is that SOMEONE is investigating whether this was due to hacking but they just aren't talking about it until they can set up safeguards to prevent it from happening again.

Sometimes I am a Pollyanna and live in my own happy safe world.