THE plunge proteciton team hard at work to keep s and p above the magical
number...

In the event of a financial crisis, each federal agency with a seat at the table
of the Working Group has a confidential plan. At the SEC, for example, the plan
is called the "red book" because of the color of its cover. It is officially
known as the Executive Directory for Market Contingencies. The major U.S. stock
markets have copies of the commission's plan as well as the CFTC's.


Going to Plan A

The red book is intended to make sure that no matter what the time of day, SEC
officials can reach their opposite numbers at other agencies of the U.S.
government, with foreign governments, at the various stock, bond and commodity
futures and options exchanges, as well as executives of the many payment and
settlement systems underlying the financial markets.

"We all have everybody's home and weekend numbers," said a former Working Group
staff member.

The Working Group's main goal, officials say, would be to keep the markets
operating in the event of a sudden, stomach-churning plunge in stock prices --
and to prevent a panicky run on banks, brokerage firms and mutual funds.
Officials worry that if investors all tried to head for the exit at the same
time, there wouldn't be enough room -- or in financial terms, liquidity -- for
them all to get through. In that event, the smoothly running global financial
machine would begin to lock up.

This sort of liquidity crisis could imperil even healthy financial institutions
that are temporarily short of cash or tradable assets such as U.S. Treasury
securities. And worries about the financial strength of a major trader could
cascade and cause other players to stop making payments to one another, in which
case the system would seize up like an engine without oil. Even a temporary loss
of liquidity would intensify financial pressure on already stressed
institutions. In the 1987 crash, government officials worked feverishly -- and,
ultimately, successfully -- to avoid precisely that bleak scenario.

just google plunge protection team..tons of videos,etc. cat's outta the bag.