Stocks sink - glad this quarter is over

Boy, what a lousy three months. We had the economy start to sputter, the Congress turn flaky, the president act like a Republican, and the Europeans insist that their debt woes were under control when they weren't. Worse than all that was the unsettling view that no one knew what to do about any of it - not the best mindset to have if you're thinking about buying a house. Wall Street, which last spring appeared unconcerned about the world's antics, got concerned. The result was a terrible quarter, the worst in more than two years, with the Dow losing 12 percent. Today, the last session in the quarter, the index fell 240 points, or 2.2 percent. Maybe October will be better - really. The month gets a bad rap because that's when the big crashes happened, but the truth is October ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of performance. September is far worse, to which I say good riddance.