Where we last left off in our August commentary, the Dow was at 10,644. Since then, the index fell to 10,000 and has bounced back to nearly 10,600. In other words, the equity market continues to churn and mark time as it contends with the challenges at hand – namely the ongoing liquidation of private sector debt, periodic concerns about sovereign finances, and large amounts of excess slack in the global economy. Especially hard hit has been America’s private sector workforce. All of this has conspired to produce a sub-par recovery that, in some ways, seems a lot like purgatory.