On Monday, Wall Street took its steepest plunge since September 11, 2001. Today, with insurance giant AIG threatening to topple like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch before it, stocks began the day continuing their epic slide.

The Dow Jones index began the day 150 points down and, experts warn, the financial sector's crisis is primed to spread.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton noted, "What's really sad is that it maybe looks like a Wall Street crisis, but is a Main Street crisis. It's an economic crisis that is rippling through the economy."

The morning after the demise of former Wall Street behemoths Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, and just a week after a federal bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, investors remain on edge.

David Buik of BGC Partners said, "This is really of more significant concern that even Lehman Brothers. If an investment bank goes to the wall, it does shock everybody, it does influence everybody, but AIG going to the wall would be catastrophic."

Investors are also keeping an eye on the Federal Reserve, which is meeting this afternoon. Some believe the Fed will elect to lower interest rates, as it did seven years ago to shore up banks and restore investor confidence after 9/11. And in an urgent attempt to keep cash flowing today, the Fed has already pumped another $70 billion dollars into the nation's financial system to help ease the credit crunch. 

Global markets reacted to the American financial crisis by taking similar dives; Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul all saw markets slide, though European markets appear to be faring somewhat better.

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