Wall Street and the California State Budget

This was the worst day on Wall Street since the depths of the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 513 points, 4.3 percent; the Standard & Poor's 500 was off 4.8 percent; the New York Stock Exchange composite was down 5.4 percent. Most major US stock indexes are down by 10 percent from the highs they reached this Spring, and almost all are in the red for 2011. Christopher Thornberg is an economist with Beacon Economics, a firm that specializes in LA's real estate market and economic development.