[LibWhacker]

. . . the Fed and/or Treasury call the big houses on Wall Street and tell them to buy index futures and options.

Somebody tell me again why it's not a good idea to require government to get its revenue, not through taxation, but through investment and speculation in the markets? Because you don't want the government dominating and manipulating free markets, right? Well, guess what? . . . It does anyway.

[spoiler2]

The Plunge Protection Team is a GOOD thing, because like a shock absorber, it helps cushion the lemming-like panic selling of the intra-day and gives investors an overnight period to adjust.

If the market still wants to go down the following day for rational reasons, it will, but it does so from less of a panicked opening bell.