A brief rally on Wall Street sank again Wednesday as the stock market had one of its worst days in history. The Dow fell 7.9 percent, its second-biggest point drop on record. The losses came one day after the Treasury unveiled a new $250 billion plan to partially nationalize the nation’s banking system. At the White House, President Bush said his administration is helping average Americans.

President Bush: “The American people must understand that this carefully structured plan is aimed at helping you. If I’d have thought this situation would have been contained only to Wall Street, we’d have had a different response. But in our judgment, had we not acted decisively at the time we did, the credit crunch, the inability for banks in your communities to loan to your businesses would have affected the working people and the small businesses of America, and that’s unacceptable to me, and it’s unacceptable to this cabinet.”