Economy/Ecommerce

Wall Street was in full Chicken Little mode on Thursday, worried that the economic sky was falling. And maybe it is. No less an authority on economic conditions than the Federal Open Market Committee said in its Wednesday statement–along with something about the Twist–that there are “significant downside risks to the economic outlook,” which is Fed polite-ese for “don’t let the sky hit you on its way down.”

The International Monetary Fund released two reports on Tuesday, each pointing to the nervous exhaustion of the world economy and describing how things could get worse in a hurry.

At the Rose Garden on Monday, President Obama unveiled his plan to cut federal deficits, which was an exercise in demonstrating Pavlovian psychology as much as proposing economic policy.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that 26 states and the District of Columbia reported unemployment rate increases in August, while 12 states recorded rate decreases, and 12 states had no rate change.

Foreclosure filings spiked 7 percent in August compared with July, according to foreclosure specialist RealtyTrac on Thursday. Additionally, the CPI increased.

As a followup to last week’s speech by President Obama on jobs, the administration sent the proposal–called the American Jobs Act–to Congress on Tuesday.

At an investor conference in New York on Monday, Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan said that the bank plans to cut $5 billion in annual expenses by 2014, largely through eliminating positions.

Investors weren’t encouraged by events late last week, especially the latest from the cauldron of rumors in Europe. By the end of the day on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 303.68 points, or 2.69 percent.