Mark Hulbert wrote a pretty insightful column about the big drop on Monday. While a number in the 700's was pretty startling, the Dow's decline was only 7%—an amount that doesn't prompt quite as gut-wrenching a response. Here's the gist of Mr. Hulbert's column:

"...there have been 16 other occasions since the Dow was created in 1896 in which the Dow's percentage drop was greater than it was Monday. That works out to an average of every seven years. It furthermore has been almost exactly seven years -- Sept. 17, 2001 -- since the last time the Dow dropped by a greater amount than it did on Monday."

I'm not trying to imply we should be happy to see such declines, but it does help to have a little perspective amid all the doom and gloom talk on your television.