From Philadelphia Inquirer, This bear market not that grisly yet

“To appreciate the speed of the declines in the markets, the Dow ended trading on Sept. 12, just 17 trading days ago, at 11,421.99. That span of time began with Wall Street blueblood Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., which survived the Depression, filing for bankruptcy.

“The way we’re going,” said David Kovacs, chief investment officer for Turner Investment Partners Inc., of Berwyn, there is a prospect of a mega-bear market “in a few days.”

October is a notoriously difficult month for stocks when the economy is weakening. The crashes of 1929 and 1987 took place in October. There also is uncertainty about the depth and character of a recession forecast for late 2008 and early 2009.”