While the national manufacturing index did decline, it fell only to 49.5 from 50.5 in August.
But in Spain, it fell only 9 percent in the Depression as a whole, and actually rose in the year after its 1931 banking crisis.
Kathy Meyer, a spokeswoman for the United States Equestrian Federation, the governing body for the sport, said that while the United States Hunter Jumper Association, an affiliate of the federation, braced for a drop in membership for the 2009 season, it fell only 1percentt from previous years.
In the diving market, it fell only to the low $30s.
The market did not single out Bear Stearns for punishment; it fell only 1.3% today, which was less than the bigger firms with the better numbers.
Regulators let it fall, only to watch in horror as the entire U.S. financial system began to unravel, and lending of all sorts came to a halt.
The pink crust of the Musical Brain had shattered on impact, a sign of its fragility, because it had fallen only a few feet.
But that still leaves it extraordinarily high, at 11.8% of GDP; and it will fall only to 11.1% in 2010-11.
Many investors, Mr. Barbera said, took this to mean that there was a "floor" under the stock market -- that it could fall only so far.
But Mr. Messier defended the share performance, arguing that it had fallen only 4percentt since January, compared with a 10percentt drop in the Eurostoxx 50 index of blue-chip European shares, a 19percentt drop in European media shares and a 28percentt slump in telecommunications.
