Stock Market Game Week in Review

The Stock Market Game is a curriculum-based teaching tool that allows students to invest a hypothetical $100,000 online stock portfolio to learn about long-term saving and investing.

The current soggy weather on the East Coast is certainly an appropriate reflection of the gloominess felt on Wall Street. It's been another tough week with the state of the economy weighing heavily on everyone's minds. (But in positive news, there is no writers' strike on the horizon, so we at least have new episodes of our favorite TV shows to look forward to this fall!)

The $700 billion financial markets bailout has monopolized the headlines this week, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average into positive territory briefly as investors hold out hope Congress will pass the proposed financial sector rescue plan.

Even if the plan to buy up bad mortgage debt from troubled banks does pass and curbs executive pay packages at participating firms, many feel it probably won't be enough to stop the economy from getting worse. The general feeling on the Street is the nation could be facing its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Former powerhouses such as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch that survived the Depression, the crash of 1987, and the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, have fallen by the wayside [Bear was taken over by JP Morgan Chase (JPM Quote) in March and this month, Lehman filed for bankruptcy and was partially acquired by Barclays PLC (BCS Quote) and Merrill was acquired by Bank of America (BAC Quote)] and the list keeps growing [including Thursday night's failure of Washington Mutual (WM Quote)].

Economists say that without a restoration of credit, unemployment would likely shoot up to more than 10% from 6.1% today and GDP (gross domestic product -- felt to be the best barometer of the country's economic health) could fall at an annual rate of between 2% and 4%.

The bailout plan talks stalled on Thursday after House Republicans stated they couldn't proceed with plans devised by the White House and congressional Democrats. The difference in opinion focuses on who "foots the bill." House Republicans say they want Wall Street to pay for its mistakes in a "workout" -- not a bailout by taxpayers. "There are disagreements over aspects of the rescue plan. But there's no disagreement something must be done," President Bush stated Friday morning shortly after the markets opened. It is felt an agreement will be ironed out by Sunday at the latest.