The redlining stock ticker in the Business Building said it all for passing students Monday, marking not only a severe decline in the market, but in their job prospects, too.

"It's the worst drop I've ever seen in my lifetime," Adam Fretz (senior-finance) said Monday afternoon, stopping dead in his tracks to watch the scrolling prices. "This is exactly how the Depression happened."

The Dow Jones industrials tumbled almost 800 points Monday -- the largest point decline on record -- after a $700 billion federal bailout plan failed to pass in the House, the Associated Press reported.

Matthew Sparber (junior-finance) said his dad used to work for Merrill Lynch -- now, as he puts it, he's "a proud employee of Bank of America." Sparber has seen his own job expectations shift in the past few tumultuous weeks.

"I had a couple of open doors at Merrill Lynch, and now those doors aren't there," he said. "A lot of us are worried about job prospects -- even internship prospects."

Then again, some students took advantage of the situation -- at least in an educational sense. Jason Alberts (senior-finance) short-sold a number of stocks earlier in the day for a much less risky simulation for a finance class, betting the market would take a hit. With Monday's crash, he was in a rush to check in on his investments.

"It's the only way to make money in this market," he said. Secure in the real world with a consulting job offer

from Deloitte Consulting, he can only pity his friends and hope for a better future.

"I know a lot of people are who are worried," he said. "Some are considering staying an extra semester or working in a different part of the field. The market is competitive enough already."

The financial crisis also poses a direct threat to the Penn State Investment Association (PSIA), a student group that manages the $5 million Nittany Lion Fund -- giving students experience in investing actual dollars.

"It's not pretty right now," said Ryan Limor (senior-finance), president of the PSIA. "It affects us a lot because we are invested in equity so if the stock market comes down, so do our holdings."

Limor said he is following the situation closely and waiting for the government to pass a bailout bill. However, he doesn't expect such a bill to pass during the next one to two weeks based on how long it took the first bill to even arrive at a vote in the House.

Typically, large companies do not get bailed out by the government, Limor said.

"Given the large scale of the event, I think it would ultimately be beneficial for the economy whether or not it's the right thing to do," Limor said. "I think essentially it's just a very gloomy outlook."

Farnoosh Torabi, Penn State Class of 2002 and senior correspondent with TheStreet.com, a financial media company, said the economic downturn is correlated to the "surprise vote" Monday, and many people were anticipating a "green light" for the legislation.

"I think people are just really shocked and awed," Torabi said.

She said typically the day after an economic downturn like the one that occurred Monday there is a reversal in market trends with "some investors picking up bruised stocks."

Tabori said the current economic situation is not the same as the Great Depression, and cushions exist today that didn't during that era. She mentioned the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an agency created by Congress that insures deposits, as one such safeguard.

Torabi, author of "You're So Money," said a new plan would be "warmly invited" and the longer it takes for a new resolution, the more abuse the market will take.

Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., "reluctantly supported" the bill, marking one of the most difficult legislative decisions he has made during his 12 years in Congress, he wrote in a press release.

"Yes, the potential price tag was huge and public outrage is warranted. I share that outrage," Peterson's statement reads. "But ... something has to be done."

Jean Helwege, associate professor in the department of finance, said because Congress hasn't done anything, people may think the situation will continue for a long time.

"This bill had such a strong sense of urgency in it," Helwege said. "I don't know that it's as bad as [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson] were making it sound."

Helwege said she does not believe the crisis will drag on for an extended period of time.

"There's still a fair amount of strength in this system," she said.