Two weeks ago I wrote an article entitled “Casting Ballots On Main Street vs. Casting Lots On Wall Street.” In that commentary, I took a rather premature ‘swipe’ at President-Elect Barack Obama in drawing a correlation between his election and two very negative days on Wall Street. I will admit that doing so was (perhaps) a bit of a knee-jerk reaction on my part. Certainly those first two days after the election, in which the market lost 929 points and nearly 10% of its value (from it close of 9,625 on Tuesday 11/4), couldn’t signify any real trend, could it?

Ironically enough, on the day I wrote that particular article the market gained a little momentum back by picking up 248 points of what had been lost. So, perhaps I jumped the gun…or did I?

Here is a direct quotation from the opening lines of that earlier post:

“The Stock Market is often used as a measuring stick of our nation’s confidence. This gauge not only reveals a great deal about our country financially, but it also pulls back the veil on how we feel regarding our national security and political leadership.”

So, as I began to receive several emails and messages about how “wrong” I was, and just how “irrational” my thinking may have been, I continued to watch the market and its performance with a little more scrutiny in the days that followed.

Six trading days after the election, I took note of the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,341 points following Obama’s election. That marks a 14% decline in the value of our leading economic index…in just six days.

And now, a mere twelve trading days after the election, we find that our “measuring stick” closed Thursday afternoon at an abysmal 7,552.

Again, let’s do the math:

Market Close on Tuesday, 11/4: 9,625

Market Close on Thursday, 11/20: 7,552

Difference:    -2,073 points (a decline of over 21%)

Ok, so let me come clean on this…

First of all, is this decline entirely based on the election results? No, of course not.

Consumer confidence, massive layoffs, talks of acquisitions, bankruptcies, and bailouts have all driven us toward our current economic plight. So let me be very clear and state that I am not pinning this on the election of Barack Obama.

I do believe however, that many of his proposed spending plans have added to the current state of economic uncertainty. So in some small way, yes, he does have a hand in this situation…but so does George W. Bush, Congress, our financial citadels, our businesses, and the majority of everyday Americans. Nobody is going to get a “free pass” on this one, Republican, Democrat, or otherwise.

This economic collapse is an American problem, brought on by corporate greed, bad ‘bets’ on risky mortgages, financial irresponsibility by millions of consumers, high unemployment, multiple events taking place around the globe, and market trends that rear their ugly head cyclically every several years…just to name a few.

And while I’ll be the first to say that I genuinely hope that today is a positive day on Wall Street, let me also admit that even my own concerns continue to grow every day that our numbers come back painted red.

Just over a year ago, the Dow was sitting perched slightly north of 14,000, an all-time high. Today, it anxiously paces back-and-forth, awaiting the opening of another trading day in the mid-7,000s. That’s getting dangerously close to a 50% drop in our economic “measuring stick” in a little over a year. You’d be lucky to find a similar decline, even in looking back to the Depression-era.

And as the daily numbers keep rolling in, how many more negative 400 point days will it take before we dip below 7,000, 6,000,…or worse? Keep in mind that a 400 point drop yesterday is far more painful than a 400 point drop when the Dow was above 13,000. The dents just keep growing in size.

And while this slide continues (or more optimistically, reverses course), let me state that I sincerely hope and pray that things turn around soon…regardless of who our leader is.

I’m afraid that economic distress, like justice, knows no difference in party, race, age, or gender.

The hole that we find ourselves in today will take American shovels, not Republican or Democrat garden tools, to dig out of. It’s time we got serious about getting our hands dirty…together.

Down, down, down, the slippery slope we go...