This would only make things worse.

A huge issue right now is the lack of liquidity, closing the market would make that a lot worse...

It would mean anyone currently holding stock and needing cash woudn't be able to get it for the whole time the market is closed...

Most crisis' are deflationary or inflationary in nature ...

If the job market doesn't take a beating you should expect a period of time where real inflation outpaces any wage increases you receive, and for your standard of living to be slowly lowered. In ways this is less painful, but in others it is far worse ...

Well it would be a restriction of trade and a volition of peoples rights....to bankrupt themselves...

so I would not hold my breath. Though I think what needs to happen is someone to say "CALM DOWN PEOPLE"

Nintendo, down 10$ per share from last moth..Has a quarter earning of 1Billion US

It is a panic market and I wish people would realise that the sky is not falling.

surprised how you guys are worrying in america, here in saudi arabia there is nothing remotely wrong with the economy. The government just keeps decreasing petrol prices, its 1 US dollar per liter. i thought america was a rich country ;)

actually the us gets in trouble when the world is in trouble. you have it the wrong way around. The world doesn't give a damn about america's economy. frankly america is in the worst trouble with all your banks closing

If by bodes well you mean bodes well for a world-wide depression then you're correct.

I'd like to say it's just fear and panic, but there are also the credit problems which is causing forced selling.

Panic isn't the only issue.
One of the problem is that at any time there is a certain amount of selling and the problem right now is that the buyers are staying on the side and keeping their cash and as a result the market is diving down ( sellers and no buyers = market tanks...

I think people are a bit too fearful right now, spending money would help a lot lol. Also the video game industry is an entertainment industry, in recessions and even in the great depression the entertainment industry thrived, cause entertainment is a great need for some people when they have a lot of money worries.

The big problem with entertainment and economy is things will become lower budget, and they'll want to work with a medium that accommodates that, which would probably mean PC, Wii, and handheld games will become more plentiful cause it might not be what devs want to work with it's what they have to work with cause otherwise they put themselves at a high risk spending loads of money for an HD console game that people might not be able to afford to buy.

I know a few people say indie game developers might be the first to go but cheap affordable entertainment is what thrives in a recession and that's what those devs give.

Back in 1929 the US depression affected many European countries (probably non-european ones too but I'm european and the history lessons where a long time ago) due (in part) to international trade as the US not only didn't have the money to buy the goods but the government raised tariffs (thus making imports less attractive and worsening international trade which slowed and crashed other economies).

I haven't studied the numbers but I would imagine that with the US's greater hegemony since WWII and the rise in worldwide trade that non-US economies would be massively more linked to the Us economy than in 1929 and thus much more likely to suffer heavily when the US suffers heavily.

Don't be surprised if the US loses its superpower status in the near future (economically at first, but you can't maintain a state of the art army if you don't have the money to pay for the troops, their training and the high-tech equipment) and is replaced by the Chinese.

Much as I dislike US politics (nothing against you in particular guys, I dislike most countries' politics) they are hundreds of miles better than China's politics (the best bet as next superpower).

Of course this is kinda a worst case scenario and things hopefully won't go that bad but I wouldn't bet too much on it.