bank, their equivalent of ben bernanke gave a speech had morning and they said their economic growth is slowing, and traders took it as a note to say things are more serious than we thought. you combine that with the fact that the japanese central bank intervened to prop the yen up, and there s a fear that everybody is doing badly and nobody is there to pick up the slack. basically is that what is happening. money is coming out of the stocks. when you see that happening, it comes out of commodities or gold. people are taking their money out of the stock market and gold, and oil, and this is the jitters of people taking their money out and putting it in their mattresses. and let s bring in the assistant editor of a financial magazine. a drop in two weeks, and why is the fear taking hold right now? i think a lot of it today is what ali said, the turmoil in europe that is suddenly worse than we thought. there was a feeling the ecb was going to rescue things and that went up