Remember when 11,000 was the “psychological barrier” for the Dow? Well, today the index broke below 10,000 points in one of the most dizzying falls in history.

In the first 30 minutes of trading, investors had pushed the Dow industrials down over 300 points. This from AP:

Wall Street tumbled Monday, joining a selloff around the world as fears grew that the financial crisis will cascade through economies globally despite bailout efforts by the U.S. and other governments. The Dow Jones industrials skidded more than 300 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years, while the credit markets remained under strain.

The markets have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration’s $700 billion rescue plan won’t work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets, and that many banks are still having difficulty gaining access to cash.

Read on here.