When we crash, everybody follows. Proof that we still wield the most impact on the whole world.

From the L.A. Times (also suffering from its own little meltdown as the Tribune monkeys with it).

Stock markets worldwide on Monday suffered one of their worst routs since the 2001 terrorist attacks on growing fears that U.S. economic woes could turn global boom times to bust.

Foreign markets, most of which had been sliding in recent weeks along with U.S. shares, faced a barrage of selling that left many of them down more than 5% for the day, and some down as much as 8%.

The German market dived 7.2% -- the equivalent of the U.S. Dow Jones industrial average plummeting 871 points. Stocks sank 5.5% in Hong Kong, 7.4% in India and 6.6% in Brazil.
...
"The U.S.' problems are stretching out globally," said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at investment firm RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Conn. "Clearly these markets are very vulnerable, plainly nervous -- and uncertainty rules."