Bloodbath in the Third Quarter

You probably know, just by looking at your portfolio, that the markets didn't fare very well during the third quarter.

The DJIA, NASDAQ and S+P 500 all turned in their worst performances since 2008 as investors worried and fretted over a raft of troubling developments throughout the world.

The S+P 500 led the way with a decline of 14% during the third quarter. The NASDAQ dropped 13%, while the DJIA lost 12%.

Problems are mounting in the world right now, and the global economy is currently buckling under growing levels of stress.

The world is dealing with a number of issues right now - the most pressing is the situation in Europe.

Greece is in very real danger of defaulting (many people would argue that a Greek default is inevitable), which would put the European Union and Euro in great danger of collapse.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers really set the financial crisis of 2008 into motion, and a default in Greece would have the same sort of effect in Europe. This is why the battle to save Greece from default is such an important one - if Greece goes under, the resulting chain reaction of events would likely be ruinous to the EU.

Other issues that are currently keeping investors up at night right now - a possible "hard landing" in China, a possible "double dip" recession in the United States and unbelievably high levels of sovereign debt throughout the world. The general opinion right now is that many countries fired all of their bullets trying to stabilize the global economy during 2008, and that they are now helpless to stop the dark storm clouds that are currently charging towards the global economy.

There is a general uneasiness right now in the markets - a sense that something VERY bad is about to happen. Unfortunately, the world seems powerless and unable to stop it.

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