Yesterday, Sam, Jared and I were out around town and had multiple people ask us about the recent craziness in the stock market.  If you're not caught up with what's been going on here's a quick update.  On Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 272 points.  The next day it rose 274 points only to plummet 300 points on Thursday, marking the Dow's most erratic 3 days since August 2011.  It would appear that our old friend Volatility has come back for a visit.  So, what’s causing all the commotion?

Yesterday, Sam, Jared and I were out around town and had multiple people ask us about the recent craziness in the stock market.  If you're not caught up with what's been going on here's a quick update.  On Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 272 points.  The next day it rose 274 points only to plummet 300 points on Thursday, marking the Dow's most erratic 3 days since August 2011.  It would appear that our old friend Volatility has come back for a visit.  So, what’s causing all the commotion?

Welcome to the Beacon Weekend Reader: Our weekly compilation of interesting articles and videos designed to keep you informed and engaged in the areas of economics, personal finance and life. We hope you enjoy this week's edition. Please send us your thoughts on this week's articles and suggestions for future posts.  Have a great weekend.

Equity investors believe that the domestic and global economies are on the mend judging by their behavior so far. Since the end of September the US Total Market Index, S&P 500, and Dow are up 21%, 19.5%, and 18.5%, respectively. Global stocks as measured by the FTSE All-Worldex-US index are up 11.3%. In contrast, investors are shunning the safety of Treasuries as theBarclay’s 7-10 Index is down .25%. But last year the index soared 15% compared to a meager2% for the S&P 500.