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U.S. stocks were decimated today and the country's financial experts are trying to assign blame as they digest the day's massive losses. To run through the carnage, the Dow dropped 512 points, or 4.3 percent, the Nasdaq shed 136 points, or 5.1 percent, and the S&P 500 lost 60 points, or 4.8 percent, which makes for the ninth largest single day point loss in history. Scary, we know. Like with any stomach-sinking market plunge, there are a number of different ways to slice this. Here's who you can blame:
It's all our fault MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan chooses to blame us, or rather, our Washington-based political system. He says investors are spooked because they saw the inability of Congress to solve basic problems during the debt ceiling fiasco. “Look at what we have received in the past two weeks from our government," he says. "The debt ceiling debate was the American lawmakers, President and Congress putting on an illustration for the world about how they intend to solve problems as a group. They exposed their lack of integrity and that fundamental evidence is so repugnant to the investment community. So what the market cares about is not moral judgment…. what they do care about is the inability of the government to solve problems in any context.”