Every day, my personalized gmail page lets me know how the DOW is doing. I didn't ask for it to do this, I just wanted to get a feed of the top news stories. It turns out that this hypothetical number is just that popular. 

Now, as much as i'd enjoy reveling in this financial mayhem, using it as an opportunity to gloat over the comeuppance all wall street bigwigs are feeling - I can't. While I do love seeing the rich get poorer, I can't qualify that love with how much pure greed is about to affect the middle and lower classes. Many people who had nothing to do with the mortgage fiasco or unethical speculation will see aspects of their American dream blackened by limited credit, fewer loan opportunities and rampant inflation. This crisis will not limit itself to the guilty. 

So how am I to feel when I see that number do stuff? I found myself oddly excited on Monday after it grew by over 900. I thought, good for you, little number! I saw it like a little plant that was gonna make it - a three legged puppy with the heart of a champion. But in the past two days it's dropped over 1300 points. Obviously emotions are not trustworthy divining rods of our economic viability... as if they ever were. 

So the DOW. While it would do our country a lot of good if it got much bigger very quickly, that most likely isn't going to happen. We are just going to have to trust something (or some...one) more reliable then a number based on the speculative, hypothetical value of corporations who have enough money to be speculated over. 

Maybe I should start praying more.