The Wrong Word

The current lead story on CNN.com's front page includes this, my emphasis:

Stocks tumbled today, with the Dow falling below 10,000 for the first time in nearly four years. At one point, the Dow was down more than 700 points. The sell-off came despite Friday's signing of a historic $700 billion bailout bill for U.S. financial institutions.

Hmmmmm.  "Despite," eh?  Anyone want to suggest substituting "because of?" 

Yes, I realize there are other events, such as the troubles in Europe, that are pushing stocks down, and I'm not forgetting my own words from a week or two ago, but the implicit assumption that the bailout should have calmed markets is at least worth some critical reflection.

Comments

[Mario Rizzo]

For the time being, at least, nothing will falsify the belief that the government is the answer. The problem is that as the government flounders around -- trying this and that -- no one will know what to expect. People will then quite reasonably, from an individual perspective, hold off readjusting.