the wall street Journal cited a disappointing Chicago purchasing manager index,"an almost comically trivial explanation.The paper was closer to the truth when it noted,"On the margin,there is no incremental buyer."The Main Street economy was sound,but funancial markets were overleveraged and overextended. the entire Street hag lost its never. The cool,unemotional traders of Merton's models no longer existed,if they ever had.Now they were in full-fledged panic.