Dow Worst Week Ever:
- The Dow had its worst week ever in terms of points as well as percent drops, losing 1874 points or down 18.15%.
-The second biggest weekly percentage drop was the week ending July 21, 1933 when the Dow closed down -15.55% for the week
-The third biggest weekly drop for the Dow on a percentage basis was the week ending Friday, 9/21/01 after 9/11 when the Dow fell 14.26% for the week
*There has never been a point drop in a week of greater than 1,600 points back to the Dow's inception in 1896
-The Dow is now down 40.67% off its market peak on October 9, 2007 of 14,164.53
On Friday, the Dow swung 1,018.77 points from high to low for the first time in its history
In market cap, the Dow lost $26.7B in market cap on Friday, and a two-day loss of $263.7B in market cap

S&P 500 2nd Worst Week Ever: 
The S&P ended the week down 200.01 points and -18.19% for the week making it the second worst drop ever (data back to 1928):
-The biggest percent drop for the S&P was the week ending July 21, 1933 when the S&P dropped 18.57%
-The third biggest percent drop was the week ending May 17, 1940 when the S&P fell -15.39%
4th Biggest S&P drop was September 16, 1932 when the S&P fell -13.49%
-The S&P is now down almost 42.27% from its peak of 1565.15 on October 9, 2007

NASDAQ 4th Worst Week Ever: 
The NASDAQ Composite is down 297.88 points and -15.30% for the week (Data back to 1971) -The NASDAQ closed slightly positive for the day on Friday
-The worst drop for the NASDAQ was the week ending April 14, 2000 when it dropped 25.31%
-The second worst drop was the week ending October 23, 1987 when the NASDAQ fell 19.17%
-The third worst drop was the week ending September 21, 2001 when the NASDAQ fell -16.06%
-The NASDAQ is now down almost 41.44% from its peak of 2859.12 hit on October 31, 2007

The VIX hit a high of 76.94 on Friday, hitting levels not seen since October, 1987

U.S Major Index Performance Since Last Friday & Year-to-Date
	Last	Change	Today's % Change	1 Week % Change	YTD % Change
Dow	8451.19	-128.00	-1.49%	-18.15%	-36.29%
NASDAQ	1649.51	4.39	0.27%	-15.30%	-37.81%
S&P 500	899.23	-10.69	-1.17%	-18.19%	-38.76%
Russell 2000	522.47	23.27	4.66%	-15.65%	-31.80%
CBOE VIX	69.09	5.17	8.09%	53.06%	207.07%

Source: CNBC.com

One year ago the market hit an all-time high.  One year later we're down 40%.

Should I sell everything and wait till the markets recover?

ABSOLUTELY NO!!!  That would be selling low, and if you waited until the markets recovered, you'd be buying high.  Please follow this link to read a great article on CNBC.com:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27100099/

The bottom line was it is to add some confidence back to our financial system & get the cogs moving again.  As of yet it hasn't much (as we've seen the market drop off another 1000 points) however it typically can take 2 months before we'll see the effects of a drastic action like this.

I know there were some other items added to the bill after the first vote failed.  What else does this do for me?

Among the provisions included in the signed bill, HR 1424, are a one-year patch to protect about 20 million Americans from paying the alternative minimum tax this year and extensions of the college tuition tax deduction, the state and local sales tax deduction and the teacher tax credit.

What's the bad news?

Well, someone has to pay for this $700 Billion & it's you and I.  This may not be all bad though as the government is getting partial ownership in these companies and will benefit from future gains.  I feel if done correctly (OK, I realize that means I'm implying that there is some intelligence in government) Uncle Sam could actually make money on this deal.  Of course you can count on him not passing that onto us in the form of tax savings, but will more than likely find a way to squander the money away on some pork (Barrel spending that is, not meat.)

What else?

This next one could be good or bad.  Currently when you sell an investment, all that is reported to the government on form 1099-B is the gross proceeds.  It's always been up to each of us to report our cost basis and the figure out the taxable gain (or loss).  Brokerage firms will now be required to report your cost basis as well as the sale proceeds, so it will prevent many people from cheating on their taxes.  The downside is as of yet, I'm not sure how this is going to be enforced as many people have purchased investments at one place, then transfered them to one or more different companies.  This is another example of the government issuing a rule with-out thinking through all the details of how or if it will even work.  However, it got Congress off their duffs & they passed the bill.  Just like we've seen the IRS continue to issue clarification & guidance on the Pension Protection Act 2 years after it was passed (and it still has some things that need to be fixed), I'm sure there will be lots of further information on cost-basis reporting to come down the road.