Spectrem Affluent Investor Index (SAII) and the Spectrem Millionaire Investor Index (SMII) both fell 9 points to their all-time lows in one of the most dramatic months in American financial history. The SAII plummeted to –22 and the SMII down to –18.

The closing days of September 2008, finds the U.S. Congress and Treasury heatedly debating and fine-tuning a $700 billion financial rescue plan, meant to fend off almost certain economic disaster. Not since the Great Depression has the nation seen such an extensive period of government intervention into the financial system, and in so short a time period.