“Panic and market crash” was the doctrine from the Brookings Report in 1960.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookings_Report
It is obviously very dated—and its conclusions are highly debatable.
At this point it is just a lame excuse for continuing secrecy and coverups.
On top of that, Wall St analysts barely understand the market and Washington has no fricken idea.
Let me give you an example.
Let's say that the public is told that our world is interacting with an extremely technologically advanced group of beings (from whatever dimension or world). Now consider that our stock markets are nowadays largely driven by our own developments in "high technology."
What would that mean to you and me as we sit on retirement accounts invested in the market? Would we think it might be a good time to sell and sit on cash for a while? Now add about a million other similar investors and money managers to that group.
If, all of a sudden, our civilization were to meet up with a civilization greatly more technologically advanced than ours (even if they were friendly), our entire way of life would be threatened.
Why buy that new car or that new house next week? Better to wait and see what the hell is going to happen next.
In fact, perhaps we should rush to the grocery store and buy some basics before the manure REALLY hits the fan.