for more on all this, we turn to: hugh johnson, chairman and c.e.o. of hugh johnson advisors, an investment management firm; and gillian tett, u.s. managing editor of the "financial times." and we thank you both for being with us on this day that we're all watching the markets. gillian tett, to you first, what's behind this drop? >> well, there's basically a collision of two very nasty factors. on the one hand investors are waking up to the fact that although a lot of people hopedded there's be a magic wand to get the u.s. economy growing again after the big debt bubble, history shows that whenever you have a heard of de leveraging, of cutting-- debt, growth tends to be sluggish in a while. so in a sense you have had reality striking home. but that reality striking home, the idea that growth is going to be slug harbs collided with a real sense of panic about the outlook for the euro zone and the realization that although the leaders have been sweeping their problems under the carpet and using band-aid solutions, they haven't really nailed the core of

johnson, i guess, with the autobiography of an ex-colored man. you don't get anything again until the renaissance, langston hughes, and, um, hurston, those people come along. but they opened up the stage for the kind of writing that you people are doing when you're actually dealing with humorous writing because it's very difficult to do. >> well, you know, i'm glad you bring up dick gregory because dick gregory, to me, is a forgotten voice that should not be forgotten, you know? [applause] absolutely. when i was a kid, i am a little troubled by, and i don't want to make a blanket accusation, but black stand-up comedy today seems a little one-sided in some ways. it seems very focused on talking about sex or, you know, very much in, you know, one area of humor, you know? whereas when i was coming up in the '60s, dick gregory, a political comic who did very important political satire, flip wilson was kind of a vaudeville-style comic. bill cosby, brilliant story teller. really didn't have someone who appealed to everyone. cambridge who would be considered a hipster today, he really did the college circuit. cotton comes to harlem, remember that? he was b