It’s been a difficult year for economics all over the world. With the tumble of the United States economy, in large part due to the absolute plummet of America-based stock markets, including the NASDAQ, a ripple effect was set into motion that reached further than many analysts could have predicted. While many talking heads experts recommended that it wasn’t a time to sell back in October of 2008, as the picture became clearer, many financial gurus were left scratching their heads in confusion.

No one has been more confused about recent events in the global economy than the numerous consumers in various countries. It truly came as a surprise to people all over the world when global markets started tanking in October of 2008, mostly because after other near-misses in the global economy, it’s mystifying to think that something could go on for so long and end so poorly.

The reason that a global stock market could be brought down by a single country is simple: percentage of wealth of that one country compared to the entire world. The United States is a major global economic player, and it is a wonder that the stock market crash of the NASDAQ didn’t have more of a ripple effect around the world. As it is, enough countries were brought to the brink of bankruptcy, including many seen as stable, such as Iceland.

While in the past, the markets might not have been tied together as strongly, with globalization in all areas, especially business, things are a little different now. Markets depend on one another because nations depend on one another. Nations do a great deal of business, relying on one another for markets and raw materials, but more importantly, companies invest in each other’s markets.

It’s possible for Americans to try their luck on the Hong Kong exchange and for those in Europe to buy a great deal of stock in a publicly-traded American company. And the business whose job it is to regulate these sort of trades, as well as the investment companies dealing in mortgages, are supposed to have systems in place to sound the alarm if things start to go downhill.

What’s surprising is that no one was there sounding the alarm louder when the slip started to take place. After all, the United States has survived one Great Depression and dodged a financial bullet in the 1980s. There were supposed to be systems in place to stop things from getting to the point where worries were justified, let alone the point where the federal government has to step in and international leaders are wringing their hands.

The most recent mess was further helped along by people bailing out immediately, with no concern for local governments stressing the importance of the system keeping participants. Many banks in Europe and the United States tanked or were on the brink of tanking, requiring extensive government bailouts that are doing their own personal number of large nation’s economics, and thus, the global economy as well.

Understanding the global stock market is difficult for regular people, especially in such difficult economic times, but it’s always helpful to keep one fact in mind when trying to keep up with the financial news on television and the radio, as well as in the newspaper: the recent occurrences were baffling trained watchers and economists, so whatever doublespeak or deception is currently in place, it was designed not just for regular people to miss, but for highly trained professionals.

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