Surprised no one's commenting on today's market yet :).
Still think the gov is going to let things go down to 8000?
The gov would trash everything else to prop up the stock market. And yes, there are plenty more irrationale things it *can* do if it *had* to.
Consider something this irrationale. What would happen if the gov all the sudden decide to say for the next 4 years, all capital gains from stock market are completely tax free? Wouldn't this be enough incentive for you to enter the markets again?
Gov will do whatever it takes to restore confidence in the markets if things get that bad, even adopting extreme measures, which would make today's gov irrationale policies look like child's play.