There were a lot of high hopes that the start of the second half of the year would be a lot better to Wall Street than the first half of 2008.

The final numbers are in, and 2008 is the worst first half of a year for the stock market since 1970. Hardly an auspicious beginning.

The world markets fell overnight, and this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived nearly 100 points to push the stock market into official bear territory. As I write this, the Dow is only down about 30 points for the day.

It’s hard to imagine that this, too, shall pass.

July 1, 2008