What a Mighty 4% "We the People" Are.

Today, all around the world stocks are plummeting.

Why?

It's not because of global economic distress -- China, India and Brazil are experiencing phenomenal growth -- rather it's due to this country's economic distress. The USA, containing only 4% of the world population still packs a mighty wallop.

Although, some analysts are not convinced the US carries the weight it used to a few decades ago. They believe that there are enough foreign countries worldwide who have built up enormous wealth recently who can withstand America's economic downturn and still come out ahead.

Even though the U.S. economy is stumbling, "I don't think it's even conceivable the world economy could go into recession" this year, said C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

Toronto experienced a huge 605-point drop losing more than $90 billion in value from the TSX and that is on top of a 6.6 per cent dive last week that had already wiped out all of the market's gains for 2007.

Far East Stock Markets, Jan 22 2008:

Australia: S&P/ASX -5.15%

China: DJ Shanghai -3.42%

Hong Kong: Hang Seng -5.50%

Japan: Nikkei Average -4.41%

Taiwan: Weighted -6.19%

Apparently, President Bush's $150 billion in tax rebates did not inspire all that much confidence here and abroad.