US investors tend to be lemmings.  They can be spooked very easily: did you see what happened when AT&T CEO didn't explain himself clearly when he was trying to show how strong their mobile segment was and that landlines were on the decline?  Their stock dropped signficiantly almost immediately.  

US investors can be spooked very easily -- they tend to buy and sell based on incomplete or misunderstood information ("no time to understand this now, must BUY").  I'm begging it will have a significant immediate impact on the US market but it will rebound within a few weeks.

Americans aren't innocent Naz, our ramapnt debt and low savings thanks to the credit card and easy to get loans are as much to blame as anything

The major problem starcraft is the global economy. Because companies for all different nation work with or are owned by other nation's companies is a major problem which causes problems because there are so much competition for companies they cant afford to to spend above a certain point so they hired people of a 3rd world country to do the work limiting the amount of in country work that is available which limits the amount of people that are able to make a living.

You can not blame everyone the for some people's garbage financial planning because most would be willing to get a second job if it was possible but there is no place that can increase employment due to increased competition in the global market place.

Japan is absolutely getting smashed to pieces right now. This is not good for Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft. If 2004 is repeated, there is going to be blood in the streets of Japan.

isn't Bush trying to hand out 800 bucks to everyone to ease the econ? Isn't that going to make things worse making the debt hole bigger?

Its not Bush's fault its the fact that a bunch of people are panicking and if things get out of hand they'll just shut the market down and tell everyone to shut up and calm down to prevent a crash.

as a stockholder I feel the pain of seeing the value in my account drop, but I also realise the expression that stocks are a long term game to be true. If the market drops 10 percent tommorow that means that stocks will be either their correct value or undervalued and then people will buy again raising the market once again.

Recessions are a normal part of the system, its not like this is the first recession and it won't be the last. The market can't go on a continuous upward slope.

Everything is Bush's/America's/Republican's fault! My gosh if they just went away! Everything would be perfect!

/sacarsm

The over valuing of several markets, housing comes to mind, is the big driver of this.

Yeah, but look at the Japanese market. In 1990 the Nikkei was nearly at 40000 yen. In 2004 it dropped to around 7000 yen. Right now it's roughtly at 13000 yen and falling. Markets of huge economies can fall for decades as Japan has proven.