Now people are panicking?

Now what?

The market is tanking, reportedly because people are panicking over Europe's financial situation and commercial real estate concerns.

Don't get me wrong! I like seeing lower prices. (I'd like seeing them even more if I had money sitting on the sidelines to buy all of these things on sale.)

It just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

I realize that the stock market has been creating its own sort of overpriced bubble for a while. Several stocks went from being way too under-priced to costing more than they're worth seemingly overnight. (It's really been over the course of the past year-plus.)

It's just that things I am reading TODAY, just....

1. Europe's financial situation: There are a few nations that are not comfortable right now, and there has been talk that Germany should consider separating itself from the region's Euro currency. Greece cannot sustain itself, and we were not sure that the union would agree to bail out Greece from utter national disaster.

OK. Over the weekend, they put together a bailout package that requires Greece to make MASSIVE spending cuts--well over 10%, which is insanely huge for a country.

I know that this is not a long-term solution, but last week, we did not know whether ANY solution would be made. (I was pretty sure, along with many others, but until agreements are signed...just take a look at the US Health Care Reform bill...So I understand the drama involved.)

Why are we panicking about this more today than we were last week?

2. Commercial Real Estate Foreclosures Looming: I agree that there is some serious potential for a major meltdown here, as many banks still have many not-so-liquid assets tied to loans that have commercial properties as the "collateral," which the value of many of these properties are declining quickly. Similar to the housing crisis, we may have too many banks holding the bag of properties (that they cannot sell for nearly as much as the borrowers still owe) instead of holding the bag of cash.

What did I miss?

Similar to my question about the Greece situation, why are people more concerned TODAY than they were last week, a month ago, or even last year? What changed?

As far as I know, NOTHING has changed--except for the prices to buy more of the same stock.

Does anyone know (or understand) anything that I don't?

If not, it's getting awfully close to BUYING TIME!!!