Welcome to the Anarchy Economy

So I leave the country for a week and all hell breaks loose. The Boston Marathon is bombed. The markets gyrate crazily. China, which has been growing like mad for the last two decades, announces a sharp slowdown in its growth rate in the first quarter of 2013. Gold, the ultimate hedge against instability and volatility, plummets, falling more than 13 percent in a couple of trading days. Appleâ??s stock, the apple of so many investorsâ?? eyes, falls nearly 8 percent during the week, contributing to a 28 percent year-to-date decline. (Hereâ??s the ugly six-month chart.)