Market volatility.

• Author: Rees, Matthew
• Position: Just the Facts: TIE's Executive News Service

"In recent years, sales of securities provided the funding for 40 percent of consumer loans, Paulson said. Lenders issued $42.5 billion worth of such securities last October. This October, they issued less than 2 percent of that amount."

--Washington Post, November 13

"Only four periods in the past 100 years (two of them during the 1930s) match the 46 percent slide since the Standard & Poor's 500, the world's most widely tracked index, reached an all-time high in October last year."

--Financial Times, November 10

"World-wide, stock valuations have fallen to a level roughly equivalent to the one that prevailed during the 1970s, according to Citigroup. ... Global stocks were trading at roughly 10.3 times their earnings for the previous 12 months, even lower than the average of 11.4 through the 1970s."

--Wall Street Journal, November 1

"Total securities underwriting fell to $803 billion in the third quarter, down 55 percent from the second quarter and 43 percent below the third quarter of last year, according to Thomson Reuters."

--Wall Street Journal, October 1

"Global mortgage-backed bond issuance slumped to $40 billion in the third quarter, its lowest level since 1995, when the market was...