ring around the roses, a pocket full of posies

this morning's headline shouted "Financial meltdown rocks Wall Street"

Wall Street spun into crisis mode this morning as Lehman Bros. (LEH, news, msgs) filed for bankruptcy, worries grew about the future of American International Group (AIG, news, msgs) markets around the world tumbled.

Shares of Lehman plunged $3.48, or 95.3%, to 17 cents per share. AIG shares slumped $8.09, or 66.6%, to $4.05 this afternoon.

News of Lehman's demise sent stocks plunging by midday.

At 12:20 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 251 points to 11,171, weighed down by AIG and Bank of America (BAC, news, msgs). The Nasdaq Composite Index had shed 30 points to 2,232, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 24 points to 1,228.

last week the company i currently work also laid off a lot of people (although they didn't file for bankruptcy), myself included. it's a crappy, crappy time.

ugh.