The downward plunge

 
From the November issue: October 2008 is one for the history books. Not just because Barack Obama battled John McCain for the Oval Office as the first black Democratic presidential nominee, or because the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series for the first time in two decades. Monumental as those events were, they were largely eclipsed by the wild swings of the stock market and the realization that the downturn of the residential and commercial real estate markets in New York is essentially a fait accompli at this point.