3. Job losses. The big investors that run The Street have finally awoken to the fact that rising unemployment -- along with the hit to the wealth of average Americans from declining house and 401(k) values -- hits the biggest part of the economy, consumer spending.

4. A global recession. No economy is moving against the downward cycle. Former tigers like Ireland are running fevers in their cat baskets. The EU, China, Japan, India and Malaysia are headed down -- and, tellingly, today China's premier today declined to unveil a hoped-for stimulus plan. The global nature of the downturn is a major factor behind Boeing's growing woes.

5. Unwinding contracts. Many big players caught in the recession are leveraged to the hilt and desperately trying to sell stocks to get liquidity and unwind their positions. This was one of the factors behind falling oil prices as well.

6. There won't be another bubble anytime soon. Back in 2002, money fled the tech busted stock market into a housing bubble ignited and sustained by the Federal Reserve. Now the Fed has cut interest rates to effectively zero -- the European Central Bank has followed suit -- but this is little help in a credit-and-debt crisis of this magnitude. As Alan Greenspan once said, "you can't push a string." (And, sorry, you can't run an advanced economy on Wal-Mart alone).

This doesn't mean the stimulus won't increase employment and productivity. It will, even with its flaws. But that anticipation can't overcome these present issues.

The Back Story: Cue Alanis Morissette music, please. All this talk of "the D word" -- i.e., are we in a Depression, should remind us that the word was actually coined by Herbert Hoover, or his aides, as a less fearsome term than the 19th century word "panic." Isn't it ironic?

Today's Econ Haiku:

My AIG itch:
Who are those 'counterparties'
Getting our money?