Everyone knew this day was coming. Experts have been saying for more than a decade that our stock market was over-inflated. Although the warning signs were given, no one on Wall Street listened. Now, it appears that everyone is being forced to listen.

Yesterday, the bleeding continued as the Dow Jones average fell below the 9,000 mark for the first time in over five years. And it appears like that’s probably not going to be the end of it. Since the all-time high of 14,198 recorded 367 days ago, the average has fallen almost 40 percent.

When you put a dollar figure on those kinds of losses, it comes out to be more than $8 trillion. Yesterday alone, stocks lost about $872 billion as the Dow fell 679 points.

Every effort has been made to stop the fall, but none have worked.

The Fed and other leading central banks this week lowered key interest rates – a move that was aimed as a boost to investor sentiment. That failed.

The $700 billion economic bailout package has been passed, but the passage of the bill hasn’t made investors any less worried about the economy. Ultimately, it could have some benefits, but it could be a while before it takes effect.

The only good sign is that technology stocks haven’t been too adversely affected, but they might not be invulnerable to this ferocious bear market.

While the markets are beginning to go bad, we also need to know that this isn’t the time to go withdraw all of your money from your banks and investments. The ride is going to be bumpy, but the economy should survive.

So just hang on. Everything will be OK someday.