Stock Market

I have been looking at the stock market as of late. I can not help it. I sit down at the computer with the intent of using it to check e-mail, or use Word or some other useful thing and I get stuck on looking at what the stock market is doing. Mostly because each company has it's own little story, and each story can change dramatically day to day and in this market from hour to hour. Like a cash soap opera, "Yahoo might get bought by Microsoft, because Yahoo is cash poor and Microsoft needs to keep up with Google, but Yahoo is holding out for a better price, only to find out Microsoft doesn't love Yahoo anymore and breaks off negotiations because it is having an affair with Intel. Meanwhile, Seagate go's into a coma and Cisco is having someones love child.
Yes, the market is endlessly fascinating to me because of the risk, drama, and stories of the stocks but recently, because of the economic upheaval, I have been reading many of the doomsday stories out there. "This is an economic Tsunami" The Economy is Crumbling", and so on. Used in the description of wealth and money are the words "Destruction, Devastation, Collapse, and Disaster." don't get me wrong, I have sniffled a bit while watching my 401K contract like a shrink-A-dink but just to keep our heads straight. When Goths and Huns invaded the Holy Roman Empire, that was a "Collapse", When General Sherman marched to the sea using the "scorched earth" policy, burning towns to the ground and salting the earth so crops would not grow that is "Destruction", and when George Lucas is allowed to make a prequel with a character named "Jar Jar Binks" THAT is a "Disaster" (yes, I know it was years ago and I should just let it go, but I NEVER will, NEVER let it go). I have sympathy for the people who have been hurt by the economy but still...A Hun is not burning your house and stealing you wife. Oh and the whole "Economic Tsunami" term, really needs to stop being used. A. It makes NO sense at all.. Economic destruction has washed over our shores? At best is means a mountain of cash forty feet high has flooded inland about a mile and half. That sounds pretty good to me. Although it is a good example of my point. Economic Tsunami: a scary sounding, but meaningless headline to freak people out about money issues we will all live through. Actual Tsunami: Over 250,000 people die in real Devastation.