How the World Works

A long day for the global economy

From Shanghai to New York to Tokyo: Where the selling will stop, nobody knows.

In my last post I wrote that traders in New York would have a sleepless night tonight. But they don't have to wait for morning if they're looking for more turmoil in the markets. Two hours after the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened, as of about 5 p.m. PST, the Nikkei 225 index had fallen 588 points, or about 3.25 percent of its value.

Those numbers may well spike up and down as the trading day continues: The Nikkei first fell 700 points before rebounding a bit. But a day that begins with a stock market crash in Shanghai, continues with an implosion in New York and then finishes with panic selling in Tokyo is not your ordinary day. If a defining characteristic of the global economy is technologically mediated financial integration, then what we are currently witnessing could be a state-of-the-art global market meltdown.

About How the World Works

A conversation about globalization.

Globalization in the news

Loading...

Currently in Salon

  • From Balloon Boy to Sarah Palin's death panels, the media chased a lot of hoaxes in 2009 and called them news
  • Special ho-ho-ho-infused, not-quite-gift-guide edition: MST3K, Wenders, film noir, wine snobs and more
  • From cash-strapped polygamists to rogue lawn mowers at Sterling Cooper, the greatest shows dared to provoke
  • Grab a partner. You have some cooking to do. Plus: Last week's winners
  • At least, I was until now. Because in my circle, nothing is more embarrassing than being religious
  • What the Democrats can learn from the Republicans about managing the ménage à trois within the party
  • Sex scandals, swine flu, tea parties, Michele Bachmann -- and that's just the first half of 2009
  • Jacob Hacker breaks with fellow progressives, comes out in favor of the Senate's proposal
  • She never became Hollywood's It girl, but she was as daffy and heartbreaking as her A-list contemporaries
  • It's spawned a VH1 show and an excuse for Tiger Woods. But some experts balk at the idea of being hooked on nooky

Other News