Not That Kind of Black Friday

The stock market closes early today, which may prove to be a lucky break considering the grim financial news coming out of Dubai, where overextended state-run businesses are having problems making their scheduled debt payments. I've heard that anywhere from $60 to $100 billion may be in jeopardy, though this Bloomberg report warns that things could be worse yet. The last NYSE quote I saw had the market down by more than 150 points, but it could have been worse and might have gotten worse had the market kept open for normal hours. In any event, I'd like to see someone blame this one on politicians forcing the poor old banks to give mortgages to poor people.