MoneyBeat on the Financial Crisis: Sept. 4, 2008

I intend to run our nostalgic look back at the same time I link to MoneyBeat's daily post but today they were tardy and I was meeting so here's theirs:

This Day in Crisis History: Sept. 4, 2008
Sept. 4, 2008:

By the fall of 2008, the picture for hedge funds was getting downright ugly.

Two hedge funds run by Bear Stearns had collapsed in the summer [sic] of 2007 among the first signs that something was wrong in the financial markets. The major indexes, which had peaked in October 2007, had fallen through the spring and summer of 2008. 

Funds were under pressure all year, and by September were reporting stunning losses. Investors were nervous, and rumors were flying. 

On Sept. 3, Ospraie said its flagship fund had plunged 39%, causing it to close the fund. That big banks like Lehman Brother and Credit Suisse were invested in Ospraie didn’t help.

All the attention and anxiety on hedge funds and Wall Street firms was feeding into the broader market. On Sept. 4, the Dow plunged 344 points, with investors worried that the problems in the hedge funds were merely a sign of bigger problems in the financial markets....MORE

Earlier, our post:
The Financial Crisis 5 Years On: September 4, 2008